Light Found in Darkness: Book One
by letsgokicksomehoneybuns3
Summary: Athena is Draco's twin sister, She hates her dad and tolerates her mom. She finally gets her freedom when she gets to go to Hogwarts. In Diagon Alley she meets her new best friend, and together they cause chaos. It follows the book and movie. However Harry was raised by Sirius and Remus. Its kind of like an au. I originally put it up on quotev, but I decided to put it up here too.
1. Chapter 1

Light Found in Darkness: Book one

Chapter one: Hair, Dances, and Diagon Alley

I, Athena Malfoy, was getting a little annoyed. Currently sitting on the side of me was Pansy freaking Parkinson. She, basically, was ranting on and on about how hot my twin is. Ew. I don't even like her, but my parents do. To them, Pansy was the perfect daughter. I hated the lot of them , except for my twin Draco. He acted like our parents in public, snobby, pureblood, and rich; but in private he was his real self, cheery, an down-to-earth. I was forced to attend a party for my eleventh birthday, so basically an unwelcomed surprise party. My brother was the only one I liked in the room. All of my so called 'friends' were there; or as I call them, the mini death eaters. Parkinson, Goyle, Crabbe, Nott, and Zabini. I hated them all. The scary thing was, I'd probably end up marrying one of these idiotic guys. All purebloods are forced into arranged marriages, to keep the blood line pure.

Pansy is so annoying; I'd rather be talking talking to my best friend, Astoria Greengrass. Heck, I'd rather be talking to Crabbe then Parkinson. At least he actually shuts up. Yeah, maybe he'd probably completely ignore me in favor of the food, but it's a step better than having an irritating girl babbling into your ear about how attractive your brother is. Unfortunately, Astoria got sick and she couldn't come, leaving me alone with only Pansy freaking Parkinson. That jerk. Did I mention Pansy is annoying? Because she is. Did I tell you how much I want to reach over an slap that lovey-dovey expression off her ugly puggish face? Because I want to. A lot.

"Pansy, you look a lot prettier than you usually do." My parents tell me to complement and make small talk with my guests. Well, we're talking, or she is anyway. And that was technically a compliment. Check and mate.

Onto Crabbe and Goyle, I swear, when they leave, we'll have to buy more food to replace the to a of it they ate. "Wow, Goyle! You seem to have gotten smarter over the summer!" That one was a bit more like an insult, but I doubt he would notice. "An Crabbe, you seem to have lost weight! A lot!" Hey maybe making small talk wasn't so bad.

I continued to talk to my 'guests' in this manner, insulting and complementing them at the same time. Draco was the master of this, and he taught me everything he knows. Hey, my name is Athena, and the goddess of wisdom must have been very good at insulting people. I'm just takin after my namesake.

Oh no, Zabini is looking at me. Oh God, does he want to dance? Oh no, there's music playing. And he's walking over here. He wants to dance. "Draco do something. I think Zabini wants to dance with me."

He smirked, and I instantly knew I'd have to pay for this later. Well as long as I didn't have to dance with snot-nosed Zabini, I'm... moderately happy.

"Hey, Zabini" Draco greeted. Zabini looked shocked. Draco never really approached others, they usually came to him.

"Let's go in this direction, away from Athena. She kind of smells." He scrunched up his nose for emphasis. As they were waking away, he looked back at me, smirking his famous Draco smirk. I glared at him to let him know he'd pay for that later. He just smiles. It was a genuine smile, not his usual smirk. The smile he only shared with me. Finally, my "guests" left, one by one. I sighed out of relief that they were gone. My mother and father approached me for the first time this night, which I find absurd because this is supposed be Draco's and my birthday party. The whole night, they had been in the foyer with the other adults, leaving us children alone. Oh sure, I got presents; but they weren't around to see me open them. They left me alone with only Draco, Pug-Faced Parkinson, Snot-Nosed Zabini, and the Troll Triplets Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle. It's not like I wanted my parents there, of course. They would have complained about my manners and etiquette and blah, blah, blah. Dumb things like that. I like my mother, but she is kind of suffocating and overbearing, in the worst way possible. I hate my father. He hate me. Feelings mutual. They told me to go to bed. So, of course, I stayed up all night.

The days of summer were goin by so slow. My father continued complaining about how I'm not withholding the Malfoy name. My only welcomed company was Draco and Pinky, my personal house elf. Astoria was now forbidden to speak to me by her parents, so, naturally, we owled each other every day. Pinky kept it a secret for me. Pinky was like a sister to me. When I was little, I'd have tea parties and invite her and Draco. I'd played dress up with her too, but I didn't know that giving house elves clothing frees them. I cried when I found out, because my parents had yelled at me. Pinky stayed anyway. She was technically a free elf. I feel bad for our family house elf, Dobby. Pinky is my personal house elf. She was a gift for me from my Godfather Severus. Since she's my own house elf, I'm her only master. So she's treated well. Dobby, unfortunately, takes orders from our whole family. Draco and I treat him well, but I can't say the same for my mother and father. They treat him terribly. I've tried to free him, but I received hexes that left me with several bruises. Mother had cried while father was doing it, but she hadn't stopped him. Father didn't show any source of remorse. That was just for trying, succeeding would mean the torture curse. I wouldn't pass it by dad to do it either. He was a death eater. He convinced the minister and everyone in the ministry that he wasn't, but I knew different. He would go back to Voldemort the second he came back to power.

By the time Draco and my Hogwarts letter came in, I was getting restless. It was going to be our first year at Hogwarts, so I couldn't be more eager. Leaving this place for a year was going to be total bliss… until I get sorted into Slytherin and have Pansy Parkinson as my roommate. I get sick just thinking about it. There's no way I'll get in any other house. My family has been in Slytherin for generations now. As soon as the sorting hat takes a look at me, that's where he'll put me.

Today we were going get my Hogwarts supplies from Diagon Alley. I opened my eyes and looked to the right. Pinky was on the side of me putting my breakfast on the side table. I wasn't expecting her and I got such a fright I fell of the bed and landed on my bum.

" Ms. Malfoy! Pinky is so sorry!" She said frantically trying to help me up.

" It's fine Pinky, really." I said trying to calm her down. I grabbed a piece of toast. While I was doing this, pinky used some of her magic she was allowed to curl my hair. My mom always made sure that my hair had to be neat and tidy. I hated my moms need for everyone in the house to look their best. I felt as there was more important things that mattered. Next was the makeup. I felt like a clown putting it on. Another thing that was enforced by my mom. She basically treats me like her personal Barbie doll. I only know about muggle toys from Pinky, she had found some and brought them for me to play with. I had gotten caught with those too. I was punished the same way I was when I tried to free Dobby. Pinky never forgave herself for that, no matter how many times I told her it wasn't her fault. Lastly was the dress. I had to wear dresses all the time. Just to annoy my mom, I used to roll around in mud with them on. To say she was amused wold be a lie. That ended with a punishment as well. I finished putting on the plainest looking dress I could find. That was a challenge, because my mom was the one who bought me clothes. She thinks that if I would buy them, I'd wear t-shirts and jeans all the time. I probably would.

I looked in the mirror and I hated it. I looked like a pureblood snob. My mom would be pleased.

"Pinky, will you do me a favor?" I asked.

"Anything for Ms. Malfoy." She said happily.

"I'm going to call you to apparate to me in Diagon alley." I said while opening the trunk in my room. I implanted a secret latch in it. Inside it had my clothes that I picked out. I put aside a comfortable hoody, a pair of skinny jeans, a pair of sneakers, and a beanie.

" I want you to apparate me back to my room so I can change into these." I told her.

Pinky nodded. She was the one who got me all these muggle clothes. Madam Malkin made them for me, and Pinky picked them up for me. She even made the latch on the trunk so I could hide them. I was going to miss her dearly while I was at Hogwarts. I was going to send her to the Weasley's. My parents hated them, but that didn't stop me from befriending their daughter Ginny. She was in a year younger, so I asked her if she would take care of Pinky for me. There was no way i was leaving her here, where dad and mom can mistreat her.

I hid the clothes underneath my bedsheets and started to eat my breakfast. Pinky and i talked a little while I finished eating.

I winked at Pinky, reminding her of the plan. I walked downstairs. Draco was sitting on the couch reading a potions book. We had a huge library

filled with books that looked extremely old. Draco and I were ready for potions class the most. Our godfather, Severus Snape, was teaching it. I personally made it my job to annoy him. Why you may ask? Well it's so easy to make him mad and funny too. He loves me though… or at least I think he does, it's hard to tell sometimes, with all his brooding and emo-ness. Huh…maybe I should ask him…nah he loves me.

Upstairs I can hear mom and dad argue about something. It's usually about me. Mom always defends me, I still don't know why, and Dad just complains about me. I could hear them from all the way from the first floor. Malfoy Manner is huge. It's really old too, it is passed down to every heir in the Malfoy family. So Draco basically already has a house. The house has dark magic everywhere too. Sometimes I'm afraid that something will attack me in my own house. My mom and dad walked down the stair case, both now silent. Mom grabbed my arm an dragged me to the kitchen. Once she made sure no one was listening she turned to me with a stern look.

"No funny business in Diagon Alley okay? Some of Lucius co-workers will be there, and we want I set a good impression." She said sternly.

Mom was always worried about people's opinions of her and her family. It wasn't her fault, she took it after grandma. She was worst than my dad with the dark magic, and she hated me ever since I was six and I spilled my drink on her. It was on accident…I think. I was happy the day she died in her sleep, I know that's a horrible thing to say, but she was a very terrible woman.

I rolled my eyes but nodded. I didn't plan on staying long with them anyway, I'd probably run away and buy all my things, before I'd meet my dads co-workers. They are all idiots except for three people. Kingsley, Tonks, and Mr. Weasley, where the only people in the ministry that I can tolerate. The Minister, Fudge is basically a push over. My dad practically runs the ministry from all the donations he gives them.

"I mean it young lady, I love you to death, but you cause me unwanted stress." Mom said rubbing her temples.

That took me by surprise. Mom never told me she loved me before, let alone Draco. Mom and Dad never show Emotions. They taught me since birth that emotions are weaknesses that others use against you. They basically act like zombies, never showing any flicker of emotions. Draco took after their advice. I was the only one that he really opened up to. He wanted to be like me, and openly show my beliefs about things, but he was afraid of what Dad would do. He witnessed some of the punishments that he gives me, and he was honestly afraid of him. I hated him, but wasn't afraid, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. If it wasn't for my Mom, my Dad would have kicked me out a long time ago.

"Now grab my hand, and please try to behave." I grabbed her arm and she apparated us to Diagon Alley.

I didn't get sick like I used to. Mom and Dad like to apparate instead of using floo powder.

Dad was right next to us holding Draco's arm. Dad hates me, but he loves Draco. He never wanted

a daughter, just a son. That's another reason he hates me.

"Okay let's go get your things, while your father meets up with his colleges." Mom said grabbing Draco's Hand and mine.

I was not about to be dragged around and be brought around to let her buy me girly things.

"Mom, can I go on my own?" I asked. Personally I rather doing things on my own, plus she always has to approve of the clothes I buy. It has to either be a dress or expensive for her to buy it for me, otherwise forget it.

She looked at me reluctantly.

"Please, I'm only going to buy the things on the school list honest! And I'll act like a lady, I promise." I even have her my pout that can get anyone to do what I want.

"Fine, but only the things on your list, nothing else." She said before she handed me a bag full of coins, that she was giving me for the year at Hogwarts. She handed me a bag that had an charm on it that practically lets you put a thousand things in it, so I won't have to carry twenty different bags.

"We'll meet up at the ice cream parlor."

Once I saw she was out of sight I snapped my finger and Pinky appeared. She grabbed my arm and apparated me back to my house.

I quickly changed into the clothes. I looked like this:  /athenas_diagon_alley_outfit/set?id=91436747 I put on the beanie, and she apparated me back to Diagon Alley, before she left for the Manner.

I felt more like myself wearing the muggle clothes. I decided to go to Madam Malkin's first. I wanted to thank her for making the clothes for me.

I walked into her shop, the bell signaling my presence. There were no other customers her today. The Alley wasn't very busy today.

Madam Malkin smiled as she saw me. She was a sweet, caring lady. She was in her early sixties.

"Ms. Malfoy, how are you dear?" She asked as she led me to where her tape-measure was at.

"I'm fine, although just bored with my life." I sighed.

"I remember when you first came into my shop. You were eight, and you came running in my store, covered in mud, and trying to hide away from your mom." She said with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, well not a lot has changed since then." I said frowning.

She finished taking my measurements. She smiled at me.

"So what can I do for you today, more clothes." She said winking at me.

"Yes, but I need my Hogwarts robes." I said.

"The clothes won't be done before September first, but I can owl them to you." She said smiling.

"That's fine."

Just then the bell rang, alerting them of other customers. There were three people to be exact. There were two men, and a boy who looked about my age. The boy was short, a few inches shorter than I was. His black hair, was extremely messy. Infant when the boy saw me he immediately started to try to make his hair lie flat. He failed miserably making me laugh. His eyes were the thing that caught my eye, it was a beautiful emerald green. The first man was tall, probably around five foot ten. His hair was dark, like the boys, however it was styled and wasn't messy at all. The other man was even taller than the other, probably at least six foot. However he was lanky, while the other man was more muscular. The second man had shaggy, sandy brown hair. His face held a couple of scars, making him look a little intimidating. I wonder if he go them in a wizarding duel.

"Hogwarts, dear?" Madam Malkin asked the boy.

He nodded still looking at me. The two men smirked at him.

"Great school, I have another girl who just got fitted who's going to Hogwarts as well." She said pointing at me.

She turned back to me and smiled.

" I'll go get your robes." She said to me before turning to the boy. "Then I'll get your measurements."

She left to go get them, leaving with the two men and the small boy. I turned to them and smiled.

"Hi Hogwarts too? I'm going to be a first year, you?" I asked looking at him.

He didn't say anything, he just stood there looking at me. I ignored it and started looking at his hair, it was all over the place. My family's hair was always neat and tidy. Messy hair was kind of refreshing to see.

"You have insane hair, can I touch it?" I asked, shock both him and the two men.

He didn't say anything so I took it as a yes, and I ran my hand through it, making him blush. It was really soft. The black haired man was smirking, while Shaggy McGee over there looked as if I set the boy's hair on fire. I removed my hand from his hair.

"My name is Athena Malfoy." I held out a hand for him to shake. To my surprise, he grabbed it and brought it up to his lips and kissed my knuckles. He also sent me a wink, making me smile.

"Harry Potter." He let go of my hand so he can move his bangs so I could see his scar.

I tried not to making a big deal out of it. The black haired man grabbed my hand, but he shook it instead.

"Sirius Black." The dark haired man said.

"Oh yeah, my dad talks about you a lot…he doesn't like you. I don't know why, you seem pretty cool. " I said making Sirius laugh.

Shaggy stepped forward and introduced himself.

"My name is Remus Lupin."

"Oh my godfather and dad knows you, Mr. Black too. Neither of them like you. Wow, my family is really mean." I said trailing off.

I turned to Mr. Lupin.

"Can I touch your hair too?" I asked with an innocent smile.

He shook his head and told her flatly "No."

I pouted at that making Mr. Black and Harry laugh.

"What house do you want to be in?" Harry asked.

"We'll Mom and Dad would pretty much disown me if I was in any house but Slytherin. If I have a choice, I'd be in Gryffindor. Maybe I'll break the chain." I shrugged.

"I want to be in Gryffindor, Sirius and Remus were in it, as well as my mom and dad." Harry said proudly.

"Do you play Quidditch?" I asked.

He smiled and his eyes lit up.

"I love Quidditch, I've been flying since before I could walk. I like being seeker. How about you?" He exclaimed.

"My twin and I have been flying since we were four. I like playing Keeper, but I rather being Chaser." I smiled.

Madam Malkin came with my robes and smiled at me. She put it in my bag with the charm on it.

"Where are your parents?" Shaggy asked a little concerned that a small eleven year old was by herself.

I was going to call him Shaggy. I don't care what his name is, he will be Shaggy to me.

"The parental units were suffocating me. I asked them if I could shop on my own. My mom is with my twin Draco, getting his things. Dad is talking to a bunch of old guys from the Ministry." I answered bored.

"Do you want to accompany us." Harry asked hopeful.

"Why not? Your better company than my Mom and Dad. They keep complaining about how unladylike I am. You roll around in the mud one time, in a very expensive dress to annoy your Grandma one time, an suddenly your never trusted in public again." I said rolling my eyes. "Can you believe that?" I asked to no one in particular.

"I believe I can." Shaggy said.

"You don't have to be mean Shaggy." I said pouting.

"Did she just call me Shaggy?" He asked shocked.

"I think she did." Said Sirius.

"What jealous? I can give you a nickname too." I said.

"No thank you." He said.

"You can give me a nickname." Harry said hopefully, making the two men snicker.

"But I like your name, it suits you." I smiled and he blushed at that.

Madam Malkin came back with Harry's bag. Sirius grabbed his, while Shaggy grabbed mine. I handed her four galleons for the robes and we left the shop.

"Where are we going next?" I asked.

"Flourish and Botts." Shaggy answered.

"Oh good. I have to learn how to hex in case Shaggy gets any ideas." I said.

Sirius was laughing at his friends misfortune. They walked inside Flourish and Botts. This shop was filled with people unlike Madam Malkin's.

"You should probably hold my hand for safety, you never know out here." He said nervously ruffling his hair.

I laughed and rolled my eyes, before grabbing his hand.

"We want to be safe don't we." I said humoring him.

We went to the school section and got the books we needed. I handed Shaggy a five galleons, which should be more than enough for my school books. They bought them for us, while we looked around, still holding hands. One book in particular caught my eye.

"Hexing: How to hurt your enemies…I want that." I said moving closer to it.

Harry grabbed me around the waist so I wouldn't be able to go towards the book.

"No, no, no, no, no, no,no,no." He shook his head back and forth.

"But I need to know this,Pug-Faced Parkinson will never know what hit her." I smiled evily.

Harry rolled his eyes before he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward Shaggy and Siri, yes I named him Siri.

Next we were going to Ollivander's. Shaggy was holding Harry's books and robes, while Siri was holding my things.

"This way slaves." Harry joked.

At that Shaggy and Siri both dropped the bags and made him carry them.

"I'm sorry." He said desperately for them to pick them up again.

"Do you hear that Sirius?" Shaggy said.

"It was probably the wind." Siri replied.

"Come on, both bags with books are heavy. I can't hold them all." He complained.

"Man up, Harry." Siri said.

"What's your excuse?" Harry said making Shaggy and I laugh.

"Apply Aguamenti spell to burn area." I said while laughing.

We continued messing around, on our way to Ollivander's. Shaggy and Siri, grabbed the bags again, when Harry was slowing us down.

When we walked into the store, the first thing I noticed how creepy it was. It was dark, the only lift was coming in through the window. The shelfs holding the wands were dusty, like they've been here forever. Mr Ollivander appeared next to me, making me jump. I jumped into Harry's arms making Him smile and Shaggy and Siri smirk.

"Hello Mr. Potter, Ms. Malfoy, here for your first wands?" He asked in a creepy voice.

"How do you know my name?" I asked a little creeped out.

"Malfoy is one of the oldest wizarding families we have left." He said shrugging.

Okay, but he's still creepy.

"Okay, ladies first." Ollivander gestured to me.

"Harry better go first then." I joked patting him on the back.

"Burn" Shaggy and Siri snickered.

"Well I don't see any ladies in the room, so you better go Athena." He smirked.

"Harry, this can be a start of a beautiful friendship." I said putting an arm around his shoulder.

"Yes, yes, you are great friends. Can we start now." Ollivander said irritated.

Someone woke up on the wrong side I the bed this morning. I gave him my wand arm and he stared measuring my arm.

He handed me a bunch of different looking wands, none of them exactly agreed with me peer say. Any more and I am pretty sure I'll destroy all of his shop. Finally he handed me a beautiful wand. It glowed in my hand and let out a few sparkles at the end.

"Ten inches, made from Mahogany. It's core

Is Dragon Heartstring. It's good for charms and Transfiguration." He said handing it to me.

Harry took twice as long as I did. Ollivander's shop was in ruins.

"I wonder." He whispered before he picked up a wand that had dust covering its box. Instantly the wand lit up when it was in his hand.

"Curious, curious." He mumbled.

I think he lost his marbles.

"He needs an thesaurus." Siri mumbled to Shaggy.

"What's curious ?"Harry asked.

"That wand is made from Phoenix Feather. The phoenix yielded another feather, that is in another wizards wand. It is strange that you are destined for this wand, when its brother gave you that scar." Ollivander explained.

"We'll this just got awkward." I said breaking the silence.

We paid for our wands and quickly left the shop. I realized I had everything I needed for Hogwarts now. We decided to go to the pet shop. Harry wanted to get an owl, so he could be able to contact Shaggy. Siri was apparently a professor at Hogwarts…I know I was shocked too.

I was helping Harry find an owl,when I spotted one sleeping in its cage. It was a snowy white owl, with wide green eyes. It sort of reminded me of his eyes.

"Harry! I found one!"

He walked over, and he instantly knew that was the owl that he wanted.

He grabbed the owl, and went to go show Siri and Shaggy.

I looked around the room to see what kind of animals they had, and one caught her eye. It was a litter of kittens. There was five in total. Four of them were playing. The fifth was off to the side, not playing with the other kittens. It was completely black, the other kittens were white. She was extremely small, she was probably the runt of the litter. I picked her up slowly. She instantly started to purr. Harry came back with his newly bought owl. He smile when he saw me holding the kitten that was smaller than the size of my hand.

"What did you name her." I asked him.

"Hedwig."

I walked up to the cashier and put her on the counter, along with some cat food and a cat carrier. I decided to name her sprinkles. As we were leaving the pet store, I realized my parents were probably freaking out. I turned to Harry, Shaggy, and Siri.

"Well I better go find my parents before they hex somebody." I said, not mentioning, it would probably be me they would hexing.

I hugged Harry. I looked up and I could see him blushing.

"I'll see you on the train. You better save me a seat, because if I am forced to sit next to Pug-Faced Parkinson, you will be the first to be hexed." I joked.

I turned to Siri. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, Professor Siri."

"Did she just call me Siri?" He asked.

"Now you know how it feels." Shaggy said.

"Shaggy,I'm going to miss you most of all." I said.

His facial expressions said it all.

I grabbed the bag carrying all my things. I skipped off, to one of the bathrooms. I went in the stall, and I dogged through the bag and found the dress that I was originally wearing. I put on the heels after I put on the dress. I took the beanie off and I put my hair up in a bun.

Once that was done I picked sprinkles out of her cat carrier, and put it back in the bag.

When I finally reached the Ice cream parlor, my parents looked extremely angry. I gulped, an angry Dad, is a scary Dad.

"Where in the hell have you been?!" He yelled.

I gulped we apparated home before this talk continued.

Dad grabbed my hand and dragged me up to my room. I saw Draco's face, he looked worried.

"Now where were you? I heard that you were talking to a bunch of strangers today!" He yelled.

"They were extremely nice, and wanted to talk about something other than money, how filthy muggleborns are, and how more renown you are in the wizarding world. So excuse me for wanting to actually talk to people who are normal!" I yelled right back.

I didn't give a care about how pure your blood line is, a wizard is a wizard , no matter who you came from.

"Athena I gave you a home, clothes, food, more things that you can imagine. How do you repay me? By acting like a Blood Traitor. As Malfoy's we have to act like high class people; associating with the top of the top. Following around idiot people, and acting like a fool, is not appropriate behavior." He scolded, getting angrier by the second.  
I wasn't going to back down.  
"So anything fun is inappropriate? I'd rather hang out with those 'fools' than hang out with a bunch of snobs who don't care about my well-being, but act like they care, because they are afraid of us." I finished.  
Fathers face grew red, I knew I had crossed the line. I gulped. He took out his wand, and started to do nonverbal spells. The first spell was stinging me, all over. I fell to the ground in pain, it felt like a swarm of bees were stinging me all over. The stinging stopped, but I felt random punches all over me. Random bruises of different colors started to show up. He stopped there. Anything more and people would get suspicious, and not everyone trusted Father yet. He got up and left me there, not calling anyone to help me. I just laid there on the ground holding my sides trying not to cry. I felt blood coming from my mouth. I had bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from screaming. My mom, no matter how much she loved Draco and I, never disobeyed Father. She never came in my room to help me, though I thought I heard some crying downstairs. What was only a few minutes later, but it felt like hours, Draco came in with Pinky following after. He already knew what happened, this wasn't the first time Father did this. Pinky ran to me looking frantic.

"Ms. Athena!" She cried.

She instantly started to try to clean me up.

"Pinky, go to my godfather, tell him what happened…he'll know what to do." Draco said before I closed my eyes waiting for her to come back.  
Draco held my hand not saying anything. He was afraid of standing up to father because he'd know he'd get worse than what just happened to me.

A few minutes later, Uncle Severus appeared before me worried. He picked me up and brought me to my room. Draco followed after, worried. Uncle Severus took a vial out of his robe.

"Here, drink this." Uncle said.

I forced it down, it didn't taste that great. I didn't complain though.

"It's going to help with pain," Uncle said.

He grabbed his wand and said a spell to fix my nose, which was broken.

"The bruises might stay, I'm afraid." He said pushing my bangs out of my face.

Pinky came in and put some hot soup next to my bedside table. Mother called Draco from downstairs. He frowned but turned away, not wanting to leave.

"I wish you would just take my offer and come live with me." Uncle said holding my hand.

"I can't leave Draco by himself, there's no way." I said firmly.

He sighed rolling his eyes at me.

"Why do you keep speaking up like that, when you know that this is going to happen?" He asked concerned.

"I have a back bone. And everything I said is true. All he cares about is our families appearance and that we remain pureblood. He doesn't care about my or Draco's happiness." I said firmly.

"You are so stubborn for your own good." He said rolling his eyes.

"I bet you can't wait until I'm in your class." I said sarcastically.

Uncle Severus looked pale at that, and I laughed.

"Can you please try to hold your tongue for the rest of the summer break? Its only a few weeks until you leave for Hogwarts." He asked, well more like demanded.

I just nodded my head, but i didn't promise anything. He sighed, knowing that was the best he was going to get. He stayed to make sure I ate my soup. He had to leave though, he had Hogwarts business to take care of. I wished I could run away from this place and never come back. But I didn't want to leave Draco here by himself. When I'm seventeen i'm going to leave with Draco, and we'll never come back

I looked in the mirror, and I winced. The bruise around my eye was really bad. Nothing a little makeup won't cover, I just hope no one notices.

I cried myself to sleep that night. I couldn't wait to get away from this hell hole. Pinky was sitting next to me hugging me. She looked like she wanted to cry as well. When I finally fell asleep, I had a dreamless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: The Hogwarts Express is my Savior

It has been two weeks since I met Harry at Diagon Alley. I haven't seen or talked to him, or his guardians. Today is the day I have been dreaming of since Draco and I were tiny kids. Today was the day I would finally get out of this hell hole. Today was the first day of Hogwarts. Instead of obey my mother's wishes on how to dress, I figured I would use my first day of freedom fully. I put on a grey and white striped sweater, that was really comfortable and some skinny jeans. I put on some old beaten up sneakers. Finally I put my hair up into a ponytail. I grabbed some foundation and put it around my eye. The bruising wasn't bad as it was last week, but it still hurts. It is also noticeable from up-close, and I don't want someone asking questions. I walked down stairs to see Draco already eating breakfast. Usually Pinky would make my Breakfast, however I sent her away to Mrs. Weasley's house. I had met Ginny Weasley last year in Diagon alley when I went shopping with Uncle Severus. We had both gotten away from our Guardians to go to the candy shop that was newly opened. We both got chased out by the owner, once we both realized we didn't have any money to buy the large stack of candy we were collecting. She is a year younger than me, though, so she wouldn't be going to Hogwarts until next year. I figured it would be safe for Pinky to be under her and her parent's care, rather than under my Father's care. There was no way in hell I was going to let father get his hands on Pinky.

Draco looked up and smiled when he saw me. He was happy to be leaving too. He loved mum, but loathed father. He only behaved for her sake. He smirked when he realized that I wasn't wearing what mother picked out for me to wear. It wasn't ugly, but I didn't want to be over the top when I got to Hogwarts. I wanted to be comfortable, and well myself.

"Mother is going to be upset when she sees you." He said before grabbing a piece of toast and eating it.

I rolled my eyes, before grabbing the toast he was eating and taking a bite out of it.

"Hey!" He yelled.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." I said stuffing the toast in my mouth mockingly.

"That's it!" He yelled before he began to tickle me.

I laughed so much that my stomach was hurting. That was a first in a long time.

"Stop acting like immature children!" Mother squawked from upstairs.

I groaned, even fun wasn't allowed in this house.

"Mother, I hate to inform you, but we are immature children." I sassed.

"No you are an immature child. Draco is a child, but not immature." She praised.

I rolled my eyes at that. Mother and Father always favored him over me. However I really didn't care that much anymore. It stung as a younger child. Now I'm glad I'm not their favorite, because then I would be under stricter rules. Mother shrunk our trunks to be able to carry them into our pockets. We were going to get there by Ministry car, but the cars, were too small to carry our trunks and my kitten carrier.

"Athena!" She yelled when she realized what I was wearing. "What are you wearing?"

She crinkled her nose when she looked at it. I rolled my eyes at that. She was acting like I looked like a hobo.

"Go upstairs and change!" She yelled.

"No mother, for once I'm going to do what I want!" I yelled.

"What would you do if your Father were here?" She said appalled by my actions.

"He's not here." I said, "He'd rather work overtime than see his kids off to school. Mind you it will be four months until he sees us again."

"Young lady, you need an attitude adjustment." She said.

I rolled my eyes at her, but kept quiet. I'd rather not spoil my day by fighting any longer with my she could speak again, a horn was heard from outside. My mom sighed when she realized that I wouldn't have time to change clothes.I smirked when I realized I won this fight. Usually, my mom would end up winning.

When we finally got there, my mother grew the trunks to the regular size and put them on a trolley. My mom always hated coming to this Train station. She would grumble about Muggles surrounding her. All three of us walked through the barrier to get to the train. I smiled when I saw the huge scarlet and gold train. I was about to go run to go on the train, but my mother grabbed my wrist before I could.

"Now look, I better not get a letter, saying that you two got into any trouble." She said to both of us, although she was looking at me.

We both nodded, but mine was just to humor her. I knew I would get into trouble at some point, it was in my blood.

"I'm talking specifically to you, Athena." She said looking at me.

I rolled my eyes, but didn't say anything.

"You two will do fine in Slytherin. I am sure of it." She said smiling.

"Draco you go on, I want to talk to your sister." She said

Draco shrugged and hugged my mom before running off to find his friends. I gulped and turned to her, knowing I was in for it for acting the way I was the past couple of weeks. But instead she did something that shocked me...She hugged me. My eyes grew wide at that, she had never embraced me ever since I made it clear that I didn't believe in blood purity. I awkwardly hugged back and patted her on the back. What I didn't notice was three pairs of eyes watching the exchange from far away.

"Mom?" I asked confused by her actions.

"Look I'm sorry your father has been..." She trailed off looking at me.

"An asshole, jerk face who is too busy to see his kids off before we leave for the rest of the year?" I supplied.

"Athena Narcissa Malfoy! Your father is a great man, and without his job we wouldn't have the nice things we have now." She protested.

I rolled my eyes but didn't respond.

"Don't get into too much trouble, Severus won't allow trouble makers in his house," She said.

"Uncle Severus knows how I act and expects it now. I think he wouldn't care honestly." I shrugged.

"Athena I better not get a letter about you misbehaving, because I'll let your father decide the punishment." She warned.

"Mother as much as I love to argue with you, I'd rather not spoil the day I can finally go to Hogwarts." I said passively.

"Well fine then, just don't get into trouble. I'm sure you'll do amazing in Slytherin." She said hugging me again.

I sighed at that. My parents just assumed I would get into Slytherin, they never even thought that I could be capable of being in a different house.

"Mom, what if I'm not going to be in Slytherin?" I asked.

"Is that what you're worried about? Don't worry about that, you are a Slytherin through and through."

I mumbled lowly "No that is what I was worried about."

The train's horn blew signaling that the train was about to move. I grabbed my luggage and jumped onto the train. I tried to find a compartment in the train, however all of them were full. I didn't want to sit in my brother's either because I new Pugface would be in there. I didn't want to throw up my breakfast at seeing her ugly face. Finally I found a compartment that only contained two people in it. I recognized the red head as a Weasley, who I figured was nice enough. I couldn't tell which Weasley it was, but their whole family is full of nice people. I couldn't see the face of the other kid though. I guess this was the only compartment I was going to find so I opened the door.

"Hi can I sit here? Everywhere else is full." I asked making my presence known.

"Sure go ahead." The red head said.

I smiled and grabbed a seat across from them.

When I sat down I finally got a glimpse of the other boy, and I realized who it was.

"Harry!" I exclaimed happily hugging him.

He was surprised, but hugged back.

The Weasley looked surprised.

"Wait you know each other?" He asked.

"Yeah this is the girl I was telling you about. The cool one from Diagon alley." He said.

"Well I'm flattered, though I had a high level of coolness since birth." I joked.

I turned to the Weasley boy.

"My name is Athena Malfoy." I said holding my hand out.

"My name is Ron Weasley." He said shaking it.

"Oh you're Ron! I thought you were might have been one your elder siblings because of your height. I heard a lot about you from Ginny." I said smiling.

"Oh you're the Athena she talks about." He exclaimed, "I just thought she had named one of her teddy bears Athena."

I laughed at that. "Yep you are exactly like she described."

There was a little silence.

"So which Quidditch team do you like the most?" I asked.

We began to discuss the best team and argue over it when the trolley lady came by.

"Anything from the trolley dearies?"

"No thanks I'm all set." Ron said showing his sandwiches that he had.

I grabbed my pouch to grab the money I was given for the year, but Harry shook his head.

"We'll take three of everything." He stated giving her the money.

He set the candy onto the floor of the compartment. And I sat next to him.

"You know, I am perfectly capable of paying for my own things." I commented.

"I know." He shrugged.

"Ugh, it's corned beef. She always forgets I hate corned beef." Ron complained.

"Here grab a candy, I bought for all three of us." Harry said while opening a pumpkin pasty.

"No I have the sandwich its fine." He protested, "She just never has time in the morning with the five of us."

"Come on have a candy." I said throwing it at his face.

It hit its target making us laugh. Ron joined us, the sandwiches remained ignored.

"How many siblings do you have anyway?" I asked. "Ginny said there was a lot, but she never went into specifics."

"There is seven of us all together." He said while opening a chocolate frog. "I guess you can say I have a whole lot to live up to. Bill was head boy, and Charlie was Quidditch captain. Percy is now a Prefect. Fred and George joke around a lot, but they still make high marks."

He's face was a little gloomy after that speech. I decided that I would somehow try to cheer him up.

"Hey, everyone has something to make them special... you just haven't found it yet." I said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks though I doubt that I'll ever find it." He sighed.

Before I could say anything else the compartment opened.

"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville lost his." A girl asked.

She was short with brown frizzy hair. Her two front teeth were a little too long. She also held a bossy sounding voice.

"No sorry, we haven't" I answered.

"Oh well, if you see it let me know." She was about to leave, but I stopped her.

"Wait!" she turned back around. "What's your name? I'd need it in case I should find the toad.

"Oh I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?" She asked.

"I'm Athena Malfoy." I said holding out my hand.

She shook it. She turned to see Harry and she gasped.

"Yes, I am the awesome, cool Harry Potter." He said and started to flex his muscles.

I pushed him off of his seat.

"You also forgot modest." I said rolling my eyes.

"I've read so much about you. I'm muggleborn you see, and I wanted to read as much about magic as I could. I didn't want to behind everyone who grew up with magic. You are in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of Dark Wizards, and Great Wizarding Events in the Twentieth Century." She said this extremely fast and in one breath.

She turned to see Ron.

"And you are?" She asked, disgusted at how much of the candy he had stuffed into his mouth.

"Ron Weasley." He said, his mouth wide open with food in it.

"Pleasure." She said sarcastically.

"You might want to change into your robes, we are nearly there." She said before exiting.

"Whatever house she is in, I hope that I am not in it." Ron stated in annoyance.

"She seems like a Ravenclaw." Harry shrugged putting a chocolate frog in his mouth.

"Where are you two going to go if you had the choice?" Ron asked.

Harry stood up and pushed out his chest proudly. "Gryffindor, where the brave dwell at heart!"

I smiled then frowned, "My whole family has been in Slytherin...though if I had the choice it would be anything but that."

"You don't seem like the Slytherin type to me." Harry said trying to reassure me.

"Well my whole family has been in Gryffindor so it's kind of like my family expects me to be in it." Ron stated.

"Just promise me you won't abandon me if I am in Slytherin." I laughed, "I can be the spy for our group."

After we changed into our Hogwarts robes, we finished off our candy from the trolley. Finally the train started to slow down, bringing us to the entrance of Hogwarts. We grabbed our wands and put them in our robe pockets. We were told to leave our trunks on the train. I was reluctant to leave Sprinkles behind, but it looked like I had no choice. I linked Harry's arm with my left arm and did the same to Ron with my right. I began to skip with them to the exit of the train. I was so excited I couldn't stop bouncing. I was finally here and away from my parents.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: My twin the jerk and holy crap the hat can talk.

A large man with a large beard was yelling, "First Years this way!"

I wasn't exaggerating when I said he was huge. The man had to be at least eight feet tall; if not more.

Harry spoke looking at my expression, "Oh that's Hagrid, and he's pretty awesome."

Harry, Ron and I skipped towards him, as he was ushering us towards a huge lake. We then were put into boats. I saw my brother looking at me, nodding his head towards a boat that he was getting in. I just shook my head no. I was not getting in a boat with pug-face. Me in a boat with her surrounded by water, I would either end up drowning her or myself. I went into a boat with Ron and Harry. Neville, the boy who lost his toad, followed. Hermione also joined our boat, to Ron's dismay. Apparently we had to go this route so see the full castle. Neville, although was quiet, seemed alright. He was tall, not as tall as Ron, but tall. He was a little chubby, but not too much like Crabbe and Goyle. He had buck teeth, and a shy smile. Hermione was talking on and on about her Knowledge of Hogwarts to him. He seemed sort of interested. But her no stop talking started to annoy me. Before I could speak up, a breath taking view stopped me. The castle came into sight. The whole thing was even more beautiful than I imagined. I stood up to get a better view. I was so distracted that I didn't hear Hagrid telling us to mind our heads. I felt someone grab me and push me to the floor of the boat. I looked up to see that we were going underneath a bridge that would have hit me in the head when I was standing. Harry sat me back down.

"Thanks. "I whispered embarrassed.

He nodded and smirked before letting go of my hand. Ron and Hermione were currently arguing over something, that I really didn't care enough to figure out. Finally the boats docked and we were being ushered inside the castle. Hermione walked away with her nose in the air.

"Good bye, to you too." I said rolling my eyes at her behavior.

Neville gave us a small smile before running after her. We followed Hagrid in the castle. Until we stopped in front of two large doors. A strict looking Lady was there.

"Here are the first years Professor McGonagall." He said before walking inside the doors.

"Hello and welcome to Hogwarts. In a moment the Sorting ceremony will start. The ceremony is very important because while you are here your house will be like your second family. The four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin all have their own noble backgrounds and have produces fantastic and famous Witches and Wizards. The Ceremony will start soon; I suggest that you straighten yourselves out before then." She finished before going inside the hall, for preparations.

Harry nervously tried to straighten his hair, to no avail. I laughed at his expense. Harry grabbed me and put me in a head-lock and began to mess up my hair in retaliation.

"Hey! Watch the money maker." I grumbled before lightly punching his shoulder.

"So it's true, Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts." A voice spoke making everyone look at him.

"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." my twin said, making Ron snicker.

"What? Do you think my name is funny?" He said looking at Ron. "No need to ask yours. Red-hair, hand-me-down robes and a stupid completion. You must be a Weasley." Ron's face turned red from anger

"My father told me all about your family. Muggle loving, more kids than they can afford." He said.

He then turned to Harry. "You don't want to make friends with the wrong sort, I can help you there." he said holding out his hand.

Harry ignored it "I think I can tell out the wrong sort for myself."

Draco turned pink before looking at me.

"Come on; let's go to our "friends." He said grabbing my arm.

I pulled it out of his hand and shook my head.

"They may be your friends, but they certainly aren't mine." I said before going back to Harry and Ron.

I didn't look at Draco afraid to see his reaction, but I knew it wasn't good. Finally the door opened again and we walked inside the room. The Hall held five long tables. One for the Professors the other for each house. We stopped in front of the Professor's table. There was a stool with a hat on it. I assumed we put it on and the hat would tell us what we were best suited for. Maybe it changed its color to tell you which house you belong in. I dozed out not paying attention. Harry and I were making faces at each other, making Ron laugh. I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard my name called.

I walked up to the stool and the hat was put on my head. It was so big that it covered my eyes. My nerves kicked in at that moment, it was the moment of truth.

"Hmm... interesting." A voice said in my mind, making me jump.

"It can talk!" I shouted surprised making the hall laugh.

"Well I guess Ravenclaw is out of the question." It said in my mind.

"What do you mean by that? You don't think I'm smart enough?" I asked out loud.

"I'm in your mind. Let's just say you aren't Ravenclaw material, and leave it at that." It said before going quiet.

"You are very brave; you would do well in Gryffindor." It said making me happy. "But you would do even better in Slytherin. You are ambitious and cunning." I sighed.

"Please not Slytherin." I mumbled to it.

"You would do very well in Slytherin, more than the other houses." it said.

"Please." I begged.

"Well if you are sure." it said in my mind, "GRYFFINDOR!" it said out loud.

Everyone stood stunned. I was the first ever Malfoy to get into a house other than Slytherin. And Gryffindor at that.

I sat down next to Neville and Hermione who both made it into Gryffindor. I looked up to see my brothers face. He looked at me like a dying puppy. He looked like he had been betrayed. He walked up to the hat and it was barley on his head before it yelled out Slytherin. I felt like my heart broke into tiny pieces. I sighed this is where things will go difficult for me with my family. I was pulled out of my thoughts when it was Harry's turn. I gave him a thumbs up, and he winked back at me. Of course the whole school had to go quiet at the mentioning of his name. Girls were giggling like idiots, making me want to punch them.

He sat down and he seemed to be arguing to the hat like I had to. Finally he was put into Gryffindor. These Identical Red-head twins I assumed was Ron's brothers began to chant "We got Potter!" over and over again making me laugh. He sat down next to me and we high-fived each other.

"I told you, you wouldn't be in stinking Slytherin." He smiled.

I frowned for a second. What would he say if I told him I almost was in Slytherin? I knew deep down that he probably didn't care, but he made it clear from the start that he didn't like Slytherins. He thought they were scum. All though I do agree that some are scum, but they do have some bad people in other houses too; not just Slytherin.

"Hey, you okay?" Harry asked looking at my frown.

I shook my head, pulling me out of my negative thoughts.

"Yeah, just hungry." I supplied, he didn't look convinced but he didn't push the matter.

After Ron joined us at the table the feast began. There was more food than anyone could imagine. Steak, Chicken, Pork, and Ham, are just a few of the choices we had. I guess food can really make you feel better sometimes. Either that, or I was hungrier than I thought.

During lunch, people began to talk about random stuff. Percy and Hermione talked about school. I could tell she was eager for it to start. I don't blame her, I was ready to begin to learn how to control magic. Then some people talked about their favorite Quidditch teams, or had to explain Quidditch to some of the first year muggle-borns, which was to be expected. I wonder what it is like to be plunged into a world that you had no idea existed until you got the letter; must have been terrifying. Then we got on the topic of families and home life.

"I'm half-and half. Me mom is a witch, and Me dad is a Muggle. He got a real shock I imagine when he found out." Seamus Finnigan, an Irish Gryffindor told us in his accent.

"I live with my nan." Neville explained, "Before we got my letter, we had thought I was a squib."

He looked a little embarrassed after that. His face had turned red as Ron's hair.

"My nun says I was just a late bloomer. Sometimes my family tried to force me to do magic. It didn't work until my uncle had thrown me out of a window from high up. I had slowed down and stopped right before the ground. My Nan was so excited that she had gotten me my toad Trevor. Had him ever since." Neville finished his story.

They all looked at Dean, a tall dark-skinned boy, who looked very laid back.

"I'm Muggle born," He began after he swallowed the food he was eating. "I live with my mom. I've never met my dad. My mom won't talk about him, but it doesn't bother me much."

Dean shrugged looking unaffected before eating his steak. Everyone talked about their family. Even Harry broke into this long story about how him and Sirius pranked the minister of magic. He seemed like he was over exaggerating it, but people were listening to his every word like their life depended on it.

"What about you Athena?" Neville asked politely.

I knew he was only trying to be nice and include me into the conversation, but he kind of made it worse. It brought bad memories into my mind. They all looked at me for my answer.

"I don't want to bum you out with talk of my family." I started looking at Neville, "Let's just say they aren't the most... loving of people." I put my fork down. I had lost my appetite. Plus I kind of didn't want to unload my problems on people I had just met. Not that I didn't think they were trust worthy, I've just learned since I was little to be very cautious of what I tell people. All of them were care free and happy, I sort of envied them.

"Athena what is wrong?" Harry whispered to me.

"Nothing." I mumbled not looking at him.

"Look I will resort to tickling if I must. I will get an answer." Harry mockingly threatened.

I didn't care or looked up at that too busy with my thoughts.

"Have it your way, then." He teased before he started his assault of tickling.

I became a bundle of laughter, and after a while I felt better.

"There's the smile I was looking for." Harry said smiling.

"Next time you try that, I will hex you." I mocked threatened.

"Noted." He replied, though he knew that I wouldn't do it.

After the feast we were brought up to our common room by our house prefects. Ron's brother Percy was one. He made sure to mention that he was a prefect a thousand times before we got there. I rolled my eyes at his big-head. We were brought to a portrait that apparently was called the fat lady. We went inside and we were ushered to out dorm rooms. When we got there the boys and I parted our separate ways for the night.

Unfortunately for me, I was sleeping with snooty girls. Surprisingly Hermione wasn't the problem. Hermione went straight to bed, saying something about not wanting to be tired for the first day. No the problem was Pavarti Patil and Lavander Brown. We weren't at Hogwarts for twenty-four hours yet, and already they were talking about gossip. I couldn't fall asleep because of their big mouths.

I decided to ask nicely first.

"Can you guys keep it down?" I asked calmly. "I'm trying to get some sleep."

"No this is important." Lavander said.

"Are you eavesdropping in our conversation?" Pavarti asked annoyed.

"Look you two are talking so loud. It's not like I can ignore it. The whole common room can probably hear you." I snapped getting annoyed.

"Look just because your dad is rich, doesn't mean you can boss people around." Lavander snapped.

I just gave her a murderous look. She gulped obviously knowing she crossed the line.

"Watch your back." I mumbled before closing my eyes.

They are going to be sorry they ever made me mad. I wasn't going to do anything too terrible, I'm not that mean. Just something so they know not to mess with me again. Hmm... then again, maybe I do belong in Slytherin.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A Howler and My Jerk of an Uncle

So my revenge plan was very simple. It wasn't too mean, because I hate making people feel humiliated. I put a green hair dye into their shampoo. The amount they gossip, I assumed they were the type to care about their hair way too much. It wasn't very creative, but my creative pranks all end up with someone either in the Hospital wing, or were too mean. I did have one that included a zebra, olive oil, and a giant troll, but that might take some time to acquire. And how would I explain me sneaking in a zebra and a troll? "Oh hey Dumbledore I need this troll, so I can teach this snooty girls a lesson by almost killing them. Okay? Good."

Anyway, Harry was soaking up the attention he was getting from the students here. He was flirting with a group of girls who were giggling no stop. I groaned at this. His head did not need to swell up like a balloon. He already had an ego the size of a house. Ron was also over there flirting with them too. Well trying to flirt anyway. He was very awkward when it came to girls. Well, all girls except for me, anyway. I rolled my eyes and decided that enough was enough. I grabbed both boys by their ears and dragged them away. The giggling idiots gave me an angry look, but I didn't care.

"Ouch!" Both boys said as I dragged them towards the great hall for breakfast.

"Well you should have listened to me earlier." I scolded them.

The hall became quiet when I walked in dragging the two boys by their ears. I rolled my eyes; it's not like they haven't seen a girl dragging two boys way bigger than her, by their ears before. Well... maybe not. I sat down and let go of their ears. They began to rub them; the back of the ears on both boys turned red. I almost felt bad for them... almost

"Bloody Hell woman." Ron grumbled.

I just laughed while I put jam on my toast. Harry flicked me behind the ear in retaliation. I rolled my eyes and flicked some of the jam onto his face. Ron was laughing at his best mate's fate (that totally rhymes!^_^). Before Harry could do anything, the owls came in delivering everyone's mail. Good thing too, knowing Harry and I, we would start a food fight. Ron's poor old bird barely made it to the table before collapsing in front of him. Both Harry and Ron got the newspaper: The Daily Prophet.

"Guys! Look Gringots got broken into!" Ron gasped.

"The bloke who did it is probably in a lot of trouble." I said shocked that someone would even try breaking into the wizarding bank.

"That's just it. No one knows who did it. The Witch or wizard that did it got away. Apparently they tried going into a vault that was already emptied earlier that day." Ron said.

"That's very strange." Harry said.

Then my family's owl began to fly down next to me. It handed me a flying letter that was red. I immediately gasped when I realized what it was.

"Athena's got a Howler." Seamus Finnigan said looking at me with sympathy.

"What's a howler?" Dean asked confused.

"I got one from my nun once, it was awful." Neville said before looking at me. "It is better to open it now before it explodes. It just gets louder."

I sighed before grabbing the envelope. I just opened it slightly before the letter jumped up. I braced myself for the yelling.

"Athena Malfoy," I heard my father's voice yelling through the letter. "Your mother and I are absolutely disgusted. How dare you get into the house of Mud-bloods, and Blood-traitors alike? You disgrace the Malfoy name. Why can't you be like your brother? I hope you like your room, because you aren't leaving it when you are home. And don't bother coming home for Christmas; we don't want to see you."

The Howler tore itself up before burning the pieces. I stood up and ran out of the grand hall. I put my head down so no one could see my tears.

~~~~~~~~~ Third person point of view~~~~~~~~~

After Athena left both Harry and Ron tried running after her, but a hand stopped them. Sirius looked at them and shook his head.

"I know you guys want to help her." Sirius started, "But I know more about what she is going through. It might be better if I talked to her." He said giving the two eleven year old boys a squeeze on the shoulder. They nodded and sat back down, both worrying about their friend.

Truth be told, when Sirius met Athena, she reminded him of himself. She acted so much like him, plus was going through pretty much the same thing he was as a child. Sirius walked out the hall and looked everywhere for her. Finally he found her outside underneath a tree near the lake.

She had her head buried in her knees, trying to hide her tears. He sat down next to her. Either she didn't realize that Sirius was next to her, or she didn't care at the moment.

"You know when I was upset as a kid; this is where I would come." Sirius stated trying to get the girl to talk. "Something about the lake and the tree put me at peace."

"Why can't they just accept that I don't believe in the same stuff as they do?" Athena mumbled so quietly that Sirius barley heard her.

"They don't like anyone different. They think that if you are not rich in money or rich in magic blood, you are not worthy of speaking to." Sirius stated speaking from experience.

Athena stayed quiet.

"Your family doesn't like that your eyes are opened and you know the truth. That everyone deserves to be treated the same." Sirius continued.

She just continued to look down and played with the grass.

"Look I'm not going to lie to you and say it gets better." Sirius said making Athena frown. "If your family is anything like mine was, they are so stubborn, that they won't see the truth."

Sirius pulled Athena's head up, her eyes were red and her face was puffy.

"But I found friends, who became my family." Sirius told her. "They accepted me when my family didn't."

Athena just looked at him.

"And you found that in Ron and Harry." Sirius finished. "They were so worried about you. The only reason they aren't here right now is because they know that you need some space to think."

Athena just looked at him and smiled.

"By the way you are missing your uncle's "wonderful class." Sirius said sarcastically making her laugh.

"Look I'm going to leave you to your thoughts. Just remember you aren't truly alone. You can come to me anytime you want when you need to vent." He said before handing her an excuse slip.

"That way your uncle doesn't kill you when you're late." He said before leaving.

~~~~~~~Athena's Point of view~~~~~~~~~

After a few more minutes I made sure I was no longer crying, before leaving for my class. I loathed my father so much at the moment, that there was no other emotions that I could feel at that moment. When I got to the Potions class, I almost began to laugh. My uncle was asking Harry questions he obviously wouldn't know the answer to. I knew them, only because Uncle Severus taught me everything I know about potions. I decided to put Harry out of his misery and answered them for him.

"The first answer is Draught of Living Death, which I may remind you is a fifth year potion." I began drawing attention to myself. Finally everyone realized I was here. "You would find a Bezoar in the stomach of a goat. And the last is a trick question, they are the same thing."

Uncle Severus looked annoyed. He turned back to the class and said "Why aren't you writing that down?"

The whole class scrambled to get out a piece of parchment, quill, and ink. Uncle Severus looked back at me.

"Athena, even though you are my Goddaughter you will not get any special treatment from me." Severus scolded. "Ten points from Gryffindor for your Cheek, speaking out of turn, and for being late."

I walked up to him and held out the signed note. "I have a note."

He looked aggravated and swiped the late excuse out of my hand. He read over it at least three times to make sure that there wasn't anything tricking him.

"Very well grab a seat." He said emotionally.

I went to the back, and sat in front of Harry and Ron. I gave them a smile before turning around. I was sitting next to Hermione. Although she was annoying, at least I knew she was smart enough not to mess me up. Potions class was the class I'd probably be the best at. After he began to talk about the potion we were making. It was a simple boil cure. I stopped listening because I must have made this potion a hundred times with my uncle already; it was truly really simple. Hermione wrote down everything he said, making sure there wasn't a single flaw. Ron looked like he was in la-la land.

After we started the potion, the class for the Gryffindor students did not get easier. He would come around and criticize everyone. Except my dear twin, which he gushed about how he stewed his slugs correctly. I rolled my eye and continued on. When he came near Hermione and me, he struggled to find something wrong with it. Finally he just said "Your slugs aren't in proportion to one another."

I rolled my eyes knowing that that wasn't important for the potion to work. Hermione looked upset that there was a flaw in her work. And looked furiously through her notes to see if she had missed anything. Before anything else could happen, a loud explosion bombed throughout the room. I looked up to see that Neville and Seamus's potion blew up. It hit Neville in the face causing him to get some nasty boils. His messed up potion burned a hole through his cauldron, and was crawling on the floor burning through people's shoes.

"Idiot boy!" Uncle Severus yelled, before turning on Neville. "I assume you added the Porcupine quills before you took it off the heat?"

Neville just whimpered as a response.

"Take him to the hospital wing." He said to Seamus.

Then he rounded on Harry again.

"Potter why didn't you tell him not to add the quills?" He asked, "Think it would make you seem better if he got it wrong? Five points from Gryffindor."

Harry looked up at him. "Umm excuse me, I was paying attention to my own potion, and wasn't looking at anybody else's."

"That's another point for your cheek." He said before cleaning away everyone's cauldron with a swipe of his wand.

We were enraged when we got out of his class. Even though I do like my Uncle, sometimes I wish I could strangle him with his cape.

"Don't worry Fred and George lose loads of points from him too. And everybody seems to love them." Ron said trying to cheer Harry up.

"What the heck is wrong with your uncle?" Harry asked me.

"A better question is what is wrong with my entire family." I commented dryly.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Payback, Flying lessons, and a Remembrall.

I woke up to loud screaming. Both Lavander and Pavarti had their hair turned green and blue. They were freaking out, and saying they were too pretty to have hair like a troll. I rolled my eyes before leaving the room. They were lucky that was the only thing I did to them. Imagine If I had actually went through my other plans, which one of them included giving them boils using the messed up potion Neville made. I grabbed my uniform and changed in peace, while the two idiots ran to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey could fix that in two seconds. Heck any wizard could fix it in two seconds. I went into the common room to see all the first years talking in excitement. I looked around to see Harry talking to Ron happily.

"What's going on?" I asked them.

"Flying lessons! We finally get a chance to fly and sort of play Quidditch in school!" Harry said in one breath.

That brought a smile to my face. Flying was the one thing that could brighten my day. Nothing could ruin the day for me now. We went down to the great hall for breakfast. All the way down Ron, Harry and I were talking about favorite Quidditch teams.

"The Cudley Cannons are my favorite." Ron said proudly.

I scoffed

"They have been in last place for how many years in a row now?" I reminded him.

"They will make a comeback." Ron said before sitting down at our table.

Ron began to stuff his mouth as usual.

"Now if you want an awesome team the Holyhead Harpies." I said proudly.

"Yeah there okay... for a group of girls." Harry mocked.

"They are the second oldest team in the league." I began schooling him, "So they must be doing something right to still be in the league today."

"Yes they are pretty good but we all know in the world League, the Irish is where it's at." Harry said.

"Yes in the world League they are awesome, but we are talking about the British league." I agreed.

We continued our argument of teams until mail came. Hermione was reading _Quidditch Throughout the Ages_. She was trying to absorb everything she could about flying through reading. I knew it wasn't going to work. Flying isn't something you learn from a book. You learn by actually doing it. Some just had a natural talent for it; others just don't. The mail came, nothing out of the ordinary for once. Neville opened his package and was given a weird spherical ball that held grey fog inside. Immediately after he touched it, the fog turned from grey to red.

"I've read about those." Hermione told Neville, "They are called Remembralls. If the smoke turns red that means you forgot something."

"The only thing is." Neville commented. "I don't know what I've forgotten."

"They are terribly useless if you ask me." I commented, "They don't tell you what you forgot, they just tell you that you have forgotten something."

Classes today were pleasant. In transfiguration we continued to turn matches into needles. I had finally gotten mine to turn as well as everyone else in the class. Some were sharper than others but were still a needle nevertheless. Defense was a joke though. Professor Quirrell seemed to be scared of his own subject. He stuttered all the time and sometimes it was hard to understand him. Although I felt sorry for the bloke, he shouldn't be teaching a class he was rubbish at. His turban smelt like garlic. Fred and George made a joke that he hid garlic in his turban to ward off vampires. Even potions class wasn't horrible. We took notes most of the class, we weren't doing another potion until we learnt about it first. First we take a test about the history of the potion, then we are graded on the accuracy of our potion after we make it. Finally it was time for our Flying lessons.

We walked outside towards the Quidditch pitch. The sight that greeted us almost made the day turn sour. We were learning flying with the Slytherins. Draco and his goons of friends were standing on the opposite side of us. He was making joke and only Blaise Zabini laughed. The Troll twins (Krabbe and Goyle) just looked confused.

Madam Hooch was our instructor. She walked in the isle between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins so everyone could see her.

"Good afternoon class." She greeted politely.

"Good afternoon" we responded back. She was rather short and had spiky grey hair. She had Yellow eyes, and a few wrinkles.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson." She said.

She looked around and found everyone milling around.

"Well what are you waiting for?" She asked. "Stand on the left side of your broomstick. Stick your right hand over the broom and yell up." She instructed.

We did as she said. The brooms themselves were old, and probably weren't the best brooms to ride, but they were there only for learning purposes.

"Up." I yelled and to my surprise it came up immediately.

I looked to see Harry's did the same for him and we high fived each other. I smiled at the familiarity of a broomstick in my hand. I looked around to see Ron's was giving him a little trouble. Draco's came up after the second or third try. He looked upset to see that Harry had gotten his up first. Hermione's just rolled around on the ground. Ron's broom suddenly jumped up and hit him in the face.

Harry and I laughed at his expense while he rubbed his face.

"It's not funny." He groaned.

Ron said "Up." Again and it finally came to his hand.

Hermione's as well. I'm not sure, but I think Neville had to grab his, because it refused to move. Poor Neville. Then again when he was saying up, he sounded scared. I think you had to sound confident for it to work.

"Once you get a hold of your broom, I want you to mount it. Grip it tight, you don't want to fall off." Madam Hooch instructed.

We all got onto our brooms. I made sure I had my feet planted on the ground, so I wouldn't fly off.

"When I blow my whistle," She began, "I want each of you to kick off the ground hard, keep your brooms steady, hover for a moment, and lean forward slightly to touch back down."

"On my whistle." She began but before she could continue, Neville took off.

His broom began to hover.

"Mr. Longbottom, get down." Madam Hooch said calmly.

However it was obvious Neville didn't know how to stop it, and he began to fly even higher. He began to fly out of control. His broom flew and hit against the castle. He flew even higher until his cloak got stuck to a statue's sword on the castle. The broom flew away, until it landed on the ground. Neville's cloak ripped and he fell towards the ground. Madam hooch got her wand out and used it to slow down his falling. Neville landed on his arm. You could hear a crunch as he landed.

Madam Hooch ran up to him and grabbed his arm.

"Is he okay?" Hermione whispered to me.

I shrugged to her, because I couldn't tell.

"A broken arm." Madam Hooch said after examine him. She then turned to the class. "I am going to escort Mr. Longbottom to the Hospital Wing. Everyone is going to stay firmly planted on the ground." She warned. "If I find a single broom in the air, you will be expelled faster than you can say Quidditch."

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" Draco began making me groan.

He picked up the Remembrall that Neville must have dropped on his fall.

"Maybe if he had given this a squeeze he would have remembered to fall on his fat arse." Draco finished throwing the remembrall in the air.

"What is your problem Draco?" I asked, "His falling is no concern of yours."

"What you sticking for him Athena?" Pansy asked with that annoying laugh of hers. "I never thought you would like crybabies like Longbottom."

"Pansy, will you shut your annoying trap. And I'd rather have a crush on a cry baby, than a bullying git." I said looking disappointed at Draco.

"Why are you defending him anyway?" Draco asked looking at me. "Even though you are in Gryffindor, you still believe that blood-traitors are scum."

That made me speechless, I couldn't believe that he would take it that far.

Harry walked up and pulled me behind him, as a way of protecting me… I guess.

"That's enough, Malfoy. Give me the remembrall." Harry stated holding out his hand.

Draco just smirked before throwing it in the air and catching it again.

"If you want it so much, come and get it." Draco flew in the air, as a taunt.

He knew he wouldn't be thrown out of Hogwarts because of all the money Dad donated to the school.

Harry moved to go after him, but Hermione stopped him

"Harry, you don't want to do this, you'll get I in trouble." She said concerned, before her voice turned snobby again, "Plus you don't know how to fly."

I groaned, I knew that would make him want to prove her wrong.

Harry grabbed the broom and flew after him.

"What an idiot." Hermione said.

"Give it here Malfoy or I'll knock you off your broom." Harry said.

"Fine have it your way then." Draco said before throwing it.

Harry dashed after the remembrall at a fast speed. He caught it and landed in front of Ron and me.

"I got to hand it to you Wonder boy, you're a great flier." I complemented.

Harry smirked and soaked up the attention he was getting.

"Harry Potter." Professor McGonagall yelled.

We all turned around and saw her looking at him with her usual strict expression. Harry gulped and followed her out of the Quidditch Pitch. I saw Harry had dropped the Remembrall and picked it up. I grabbed it and put it in my pocket. I didn't notice the look on Hermione's face.

I walked away after the lesson and went straight to the Hospital wing. Neville was asleep, with his arm fully recovered. I put the remembrall on the table that was near his hospital bed and walked away not wanting to wake him up. I walked out only to stop when a voice interrupted me.

"That was really nice of you." Hermione said.

I turned around and just shrugged as a response.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you were like your brother." She continued.

"Well in some ways I am like him. It's just he actually listened to the lies my parents told him." I said without emotion.

"I'm sorry for the way I have been acting around you. I thought you believed the same things your family does." She finished.

"Thanks your one of the first people who actually recognize that I'm not." I smiled.

"What do you say if I stop being snobby to you, and vice versa, that we could actually be friends." Hermione said nicely.

I smiled and nodded.'

"Actually, I really didn't mind you. Lavender Brown, and Pavarti Patil kind of get on my nerves." I admitted.

"They are rather annoying, they kept me up last night commenting on cute older boys." Hermione said wrinkling her nose.

We talked all the way to the common room. She taught me about the Muggle world, while I taught her about the Wizarding world. I learned why she liked to show off so much. She was afraid that people would think she wouldn't know how to do anything because she was muggle-born.

"Hey If you want, I can teach you to fly. It's not that hard really once you get used to it." I offered.

"No thanks, after today I think I'll just watch Quidditch and not play it." Hermione smiled.

"Okay, well I can teach you everything I know about Quidditch, and trust me it's a lot." I giggled.

We walked into the common room giggling. Harry was still there, surprising me.

"Hey I'll talk to you later." I told her.

She smiled and nodded and went to our dormitory.

I walked up to Harry smiling.

"I thought I wouldn't see you here again Boy Wonder." I said.

"Not getting rid of me yet." He joked.

"Darn, I was hoping that I would be the big headed git of the Gryffindor after this." I said snapping my finger.

"That would be Percy." He said making me laugh.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"I got put on the Gryffindor Quidditch team." He said proudly,

"What!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah apparently McGonagall saw me catching the remembrall and thought I would be a good seeker." Harry said proudly.

"Wicked!" I commented. "You must be the youngest seeker in the History of Hogwarts."

"First Quidditch game is in two months if you want to come." Harry invited.

"Well of course I have to cheer on my team." I said. "Plus you can put in a good word to wood for me, I want to join the team next year." I joked with him.

"I don't know, with your choice of Quidditch team, you probably don't have the best Quidditch skills." Harry teased.

"At least I don't like the Cudley Cannons." I said.

"Yeah that's true." He finished.

"You want to go to great hall for diner?" I asked.

"No, not really hungry." He laughed. "Almost getting expelled does that to you."

"Okay well see you tomorrow I'm going to bed." I said before going to my room.

I was hoping to talk to Hermione, but she was already asleep. I decided to follow suit and went to bed. This time Pavarti and Lavander weren't bothering me, after all, I did threaten to cut off all their hair next time. They could be idiots sometimes... or all the time.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A Wizarding Duel, Forbidden Floors, and a Dog from Hell

I looked at the clock and groaned. I was going to be late for breakfast and for classes. I got up and put my hair into a bun and got dressed as fast as I could. I didn't put on the outer robe, but I put on the rest of the uniform. I ran down stairs trying to put my tie at the same time. I sat down next to Hermione who seemed to be the only first year in Gryffindor that was down. What puzzled me a little was the fact that she wasn't wearing the uniform. She also didn't have her huge school bag.

"Hey where is everyone?" I asked as I grabbed a piece of toast and started to put jam on it.

"They are all sleeping in." Hermione said before taking a sip of Pumpkin juice.

"What? Aren't they going to be late for classes?" I asked.

"Athena it's the weekend. No classes today or tomorrow." she laughed at the expression on my face.

"So I'm wearing the uniform for nothing?" I asked annoyed.

"Pretty much." Hermione said.

Harry and Ron sat down next to me and laughed at my expression. Was it laugh at Athena's misfortune day?

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Harry mocked before taking a bite of the toast I just put jam on.

"Hey that's mine!" I yelled before trying to grab it out of his hand.

Harry unfortunately was taller and was able to hold it out of my reach. I gave him the puppy-dog face, but he ate the rest of it.

"Jerk." I grumbled.

Harry patted me on the head. I slapped his hand as a warning.

"Anyway, why are you talking to Hermione?" Ron asked confused. "I thought you guys didn't like each other?"

"We became friends because we share the same room." I answered.

Hermione looked uncomfortable. "Hey Athena, I'm going to go talk to Neville." She said before leaving.

I just gave her a nod and an apologetic smile. She walked way to the opposite side of the table.

"Really Ron! Was that necessary? " I asked annoyed.

"What?" Ron asked. "Just last week you were talking about how annoying she was. And frankly, I agree with you."

I stood up annoyed. "I had my eyes opened and realized how great of a person she is."

I was going to sit by Neville and Hermione. Ron was never fun to talk to when he acted like this.

"Come on Athena. Don't go." Harry said lightly grabbing my arm.

"No if Ron has a problem with my friends, then I have a problem with being his friend." I spat.

Harry let go and I left to sit down next to Hermione.

She saw the frown on my face.

"You okay?" She asked worried. "What happened?"

"Boys. They are so stupid." I groaned.

"Oi!" Neville protested.

"No not you Neville, your one of the good ones." I reassured him. "I'm talking about freckle face."

"Freckle face?" Hermione asked confused, "He must have really made you mad."

"It's just Ron, he can be a git sometimes." I rolled my eyes.

We were almost done eating when I saw Draco talking to Harry and Ron.

"Oh no." I stated. "This can't be good."

I got up to try and defuse whatever situation may happen.

I got there only to here a few parts of what my twin was saying.

"...Wizarding duel at midnight." Draco finished.

I groaned knowing both boys were too stubborn to back down.

"Fine who's your second?" Harry asked.

Draco looked between Krabbe and Goyle and didn't like his choices.

"Blaise." Draco finished.

"Ron will be my second." Harry finished.

"Okay midnight, in the trophy room." Draco finished before Sirius walked up.

"Is there a problem here boys?" He asked.

"No...Sir" Draco said before leaving shooting me a glance.

"Not anymore Uncle Sirius." Harry said,

Sirius shrugged before walking away the teachers table. I rolled my eyes. He couldn't have controlled the situation, way to be an adult Sirius...Way to go.

"Harry, Ron please don't do this." I said. "You don't know my brother. If he's doing this he has another motive behind it. He is all brains not brawn."

"It's going to be fine Athena. I'm the Boy who Lived, not died." Harry boasted (A very Potter musical anyone?).

"That doesn't make you invincible." I said, but I realized both boys wouldn't give up. "Fine but don't say I didn't warn you." I said walking away.

I sat down next to Hermione aggravated.

"What happened?" She asked looking at me.

Before I answered her I saw my twin pass by my table and began to leave the Great Hall.

"I'll explain later. I'll meet you in the library. I have to speak to my brother." I told her.

I ran out of the hall trying to catch up with him. I found him underneath the tree by the lake. He was surrounded by Krabbe, Goyle, Blaise, and a few other Slytherins. I swallowed a little bit of my pride, before walking up to him. They were laughing about something before the noticed me and began to get quiet. I don't know if they were either talking about me, or were just shocked to see me.

"Draco can we talk?" I asked.

"We already are talking, Athena." He said making his "followers" laugh.

"Don't be a smart ass. You know what I mean." I replied.

"Fine." He said before shooing his friends away.

They all walked away whispering something, that I couldn't catch. It was probably something about me, but I learned to ignore what they say. Krabbe and Goyle tripped and fell into the lake, making the Slytherin group laugh. I rolled my eyes at their stupidity.

"Why do you hang out with them?" I asked. "Krabbe and Goyle are so idiotic."

"Yeah and Potter and Weasley are geniuses." He retaliated.

"Look I didn't come over here just to argue." I intervened.

"Well you sure did a good job of making that point across." Draco said sarcastically.

"What is your problem?" I asked, shocked at his tone.

He never ever has raised his voice or has been sarcastic with me.

"You are my problem." He snapped. "First you turn your back on the friends you made back home, then you ignore me the whole time we are here, now you are acting like nothing is wrong."

"Hey first of all, you haven't exactly made an effort to talk to me either." I replied, "And you know that those people, although are your friends, hate my guts."

He sighed and looked at me.

"Why couldn't you just get into Slytherin. Everything would be so much easier." Draco mumbled.

I gulped I didn't want to tell him that I begged the hat so I wouldn't be in Slytherin.

"We can't control everything. The hat said I wasn't Slytherin material." Lies all lies.

"Look the reason I came out here was to ask you to call off the Wizarding duel." I said changing the subject.

Draco looked like I asked him to murder a puppy.

"You know that I would never do that." Draco replied.

"Look You can't do this, you guys are going to get into trouble." I exclaimed.

"Don't act like you care." Draco said dryly, "I know you are only doing this to protect Scarhead."

"First of all, don't call him that." I protested, "And secondly, you are my twin and I will always care about you."

Draco didn't look convinced.

"No matter how much of a git you can be acting at the time." I added.

"Look don't worry about me..." Draco smirked, "I don't plan on getting in trouble."

I groaned I knew that smirk. He was plotting something.

"Draco-"

He cut me off. "You asked your question and you got an answer; the answer is no. I will not cancel the Duel."

I looked at the ground.

"Now go." he spat.

"You've changed." I stated the truth. "You would never talk to me like this before Hogwarts."

"No I haven't," He replied, "Your the one who has changed."

He walked away leaving me to sit under the tree. I looked up at the tree and realized it was the same one that I was under when I was crying about the howler. Was this tree cursed or something?

I left to go to the library, feeling upset. I passed Draco on the way, this time making sure that I didn't make contact with him. If he wanted to be a jerk, then I was going to be a jerk back. The library was crowded today, and I have no idea why. Usually you would only see the same people in here. Uncle Severus must have assigned a huge report or something.

"Hey you okay?" Hermione asked, seeing my upset face.

"Come on we will talk about it somewhere in private." I said grabbing her arm.

She checked out this huge book, she said that she wanted to read in her down time. Then we gathered our things and left the library. We walked in the common room and up to our dorm room. I knew Brown and Patil wouldn't be here, they would be in the garden or stalking boys. I closed the door and turned to her.

"My idiot brother, challenged my idiot friends to a wizarding duel at midnight. Both idiots agreed, and now if they are going to get caught they will get detention for sure. Making all three of them very idiotic" I explained.

"Well where did you go before that?" Hermione asked.

"I went to try and talk my brother out of it." I replied. "It wasn't that pleasant of a conversation."

"And?"

"He won't call it off." I answered. "In fact I think he has another motive. He isn't one to duel."

"We got to stop them." Hermione said.

"I've already tried. They are stubborn as hell." I sighed

"Well we've got to try." Hermione said firmly.

"If they won't listen to me, they won't listen to anyone." I shook my head.

"Well we can't just let them get themselves in trouble. Harry almost got himself expelled already." Hermione said.

"Well we can stay up, and not let them leave. They'll hate me for a while, but it's what's best." I said.

"Okay we'll stay awake until 11, then wait in the common room for them." Hermione suggested.

I gulped I couldn't take it if Harry and Ron hate me, but I don't want them to be expelled.

I sighed knowing it was what had to be done. Time passed quickly, and soon enough, Hermione and I went in the common room, waiting on the boys. More time passed, still no sign of the boys. I grew hopeful, maybe they came to their senses. More and more time passed, making both Hermione and I anxious. I looked at the grandfather clock and was shocked at the time.

"It's half past eleven." I whispered, "You think they decided not to go?"

"No," Hermione whispered back, "they are probably just going to be late." she rolled her eyes, "Like usual."

We heard whispering and a door opening. Harry and Ron came out of their dorm, being loud, although they were trying to be quiet. They were about to go out of the portrait hole when Hermione stopped them.

"I can't believe you're going to do this?" She said turning on a lamp so they could see us.

"You!" Ron snapped, "Go back to bed."

"Look guys. I can't let you do this." I said bringing the attention to me. "You guys will get into trouble. Harry you were almost expelled yesterday. Let's not push it."

"I'm sorry I'm not backing out. I'm not a coward." Harry said firmly.

"Fine, but I'm coming. I know spells that could be useful." I said standing up.

Harry nodded. "Fine but hurry up we are going to be late."

We walked out of the portrait hole, Hermione following after.

"Don't you guys care about Gryffindor at all?" Hermione whispered yelled.

"Go away." Ron whispered back.

"Fine I'm not going to watch you guys make a fool of yourselves, I'm leaving." Hermione said.

However when she went back to the portrait The Fat Lady was gone.

"What am I going to do?" She groaned.

"I don't know, but we are leaving." Ron said walking away.

"Well I'm not staying by myself." Hermione said running up to us.

"You've got some nerve." Ron argued.

"Shut up or we will be caught before we get there." I said diffusing the tension.

When we finally got to the trophy room it was five till midnight. Ten minutes passed... Draco never showed up.

"I don't think he's coming." Hermione stated.

"That's not like Draco." I said confused. "He never backs down."

Then we heard a voice.

"They're here somewhere." Filch's voice was heard nearby.

We were running towards the common room. We were trying to evade Filch's sight, when the stairs began to change. We groaned but had no choice; Filch's voice was getting closer. We ran up the stairs to a different floor. However I didn't recognize this floor. We've never been on this floor for any of our classes before. We ran until we came to a dead end. I groaned knowing Filch was getting closer by the second. Ron ran to a class room and tried to open a door.

"It's locked." He said franticly.

"Oh, move over." Hermione said pushing him out the way. "Alohomora."

The door opened immediately at her spell and we ran inside the classroom.

"Malfoy set you guys up. He was never going to meet you there." Hermione mocked them.

"Hermione as much as I love I told you so's. Now is not the time." I said panting from lack of breathe

We waited a few seconds and heard Filch walk away from the door. We all let out a breath of relief.

I turned around to look at the room we were in... big mistake. I looked up to see a huge beast. The beast could only be described as a three headed dog.

"Umm... Harry." I said getting his attention.

"Yeah." he said not turning around.

"Remember how you wanted a dog." I said.

"Yeah?" He asked confused why I would remind him of that now.

"I think I found you one." I said scared.

"What are you talking ab-" before he could finish he was greeted by the sight of the dogs.

We all screamed before running out of the room. Out of the two things, Filch and a giant three headed dog, we would rather Filch. He wouldn't kill us... I hope. We ran all the way to the portrait hole not looking back or caring if anyone saw or heard us. When we finally got there the Fat Lady was sleeping.

"Pig's snout." I said the password waking her up.

"What are you kids doing out of bed?" She asked outraged.

"Pig's snout." Harry repeated not answering her question.

She looked irritated, but opened the portrait nevertheless letting us go inside. We all sat down catching our breath.

"Why do they have that in a school?" Ron said panting. "If any animal needs exercise it's that one."

"It looks more like it needs a meal." Harry commented.

"Don't you use your eyes?" Hermione asked annoyed. "Did you see what it was standing on?"

"Oh I'm sorry," Ron said aggravated. "I was too busy looking at its head. If you didn't notice it had three of them!" he yelled.

"It was standing on a trap door." Hermione stated, hoping they would get the picture.

"It's guarding something." I realized.

"Finally someone's not a complete idiot." Hermione exclaimed. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to bed before you find another clever way to get us killed. Or worse, expelled." she said walking up to the girls dorm.

"She needs to sort out her priorities." Ron stated.

"I know she is a little unorthodox sometimes, but she is really nice once you get to know her." I said sticking up for her.

"Look." Harry said to me, "I'll respect your friendship with her, but don't expect us to be friends with her too."

"That's all I ask." I said hugging him.

I looked at Ron, but he shook his head. That made me mad.

"Fine be a git, but just so you know she was just trying help." I said leaving to go to my dorm bumping Ron's shoulder in the process.

"We were your friends first." Ron's voice stopped me.

"I don't go by who was friends with me first. If you're my friend I stick up for you." I said look up at him. "I do it all the time for you too, but now you are being a bullying git." I walked away.

Before I closed the door I heard noise that sounded like a slap.

"Way to go dude." Harry said.

Even though I was in a bad mood I laughed at that a little.

"I can't believe you were going to help them." Hermione whispered to me.

"Look I knew both of them were too stubborn to stay. I figured if they weren't going to stay, could make sure none of them get hurt in the process." I replied.

"They are going to get themselves expelled before the year is up." Hermione replied.

"Look I know they aren't the brightest-"

"That's an understatement." Hermione interrupted.

"But they do mean well." I finished.

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight." Hermione said closing her curtain.

I sighed. I grabbed my curtains around my bed and closed them too. If only my friends could get along.

I was so tired I fell asleep instantly.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven Halloween, Troll bogies, and Exploding Feathers

Today was going to be a good day. Today was my holiday, for today was Halloween. See who wouldn't like a holiday dedicated to getting free candy. Well maybe not Hermione, because her parents are dentists. But free candy, you can never go wrong with free candy. Another reason today was going to be a good day was because we didn't have any bad classes today. No uncles causing people to lose their confidence. No boring History of Magic class that puts me to sleep. No boring Quirrell who doesn't know how to teach his own subject. Lastly the best part of today was the fact that we could dress up in Halloween costumes. In fact it took me so long to finish my costume makeup that I missed breakfast this morning. I dressed up as a skeleton, not too extravagant, but hey it was the best I could do in a short notice. Plus I didn't want it to be too over-the-top. After all we had to wear it during classes, and the classrooms could get pretty messy sometimes while learning new things. So once I was satisfied with my costume, I got my books and left the dorm.

I ran to transfiguration class. I sat next to Hermione and in front of Harry and Ron. Ron didn't dress up, I knew why, he didn't have enough money to buy one. Harry never really liked Halloween, but he never told me why, so it didn't surprise me either that he didn't dress up. Hermione dressed up as a Muggles thought a witch looked like. Or at least that's what she told me she was. I had to admit it was pretty funny that Muggles thought we actually look like that. Ugly, well some of the dark witches were hags, but most of us looked really normal. Also she had green skin, did they think we were sick all the time? Hello we have magic, we can heal really easily. I'll never understand Muggles, but I guess they are very creative. Anyway, Today in transfiguration we learned how to turn a hair pin into a quill. We were still starting off small, because transfiguration can be very dangerous if done wrong. I had gotten it towards the end of class. A lot of people got it before me, but I didn't care much. Transfiguration wasn't my best subject, so for me to get it in the first day was progress. McGonagall gave me a small smile, but it wiped off and turned to her normal strict expression. It was almost like it didn't happen.

In Herbology we didn't do much. We just took notes on a plant they weren't allowed to have at school. The devil's snare it was called. Apparently the plant is used kind of like a guard dog. It traps everything in a close diameter and will crush anything it gets its vines on. Eventually it can suffocate the person if trapped for too long. I stopped paying attention after that... my empty stomach was getting to me. I usually didn't skip breakfast, so I was really hungry. Neville however was listening to every word Professor Sprout was saying. This really was his best class.

Next was charms class. I loved Professor Flitwick because he was so happy and cheery all the time. It would cheer you up if you had a bad day; or came back from Uncle Severus's class. Today we were learning how to levitate things. We were using feathers to spell on. During the class I was getting frustrated, because I couldn't get the spell to last. I was able to lift the feather, but I was unsuccessful in getting it to stay up for a long time. After the fourth time I gave up and looked around. Everyone else looked like they were having the same problem. Ron was the worst he couldn't get it to levitate at all. He got so aggravated that his wouldn't move, that he began to move his arm like a windmill almost like he was trying to kill the feather.

"Stop." Hermione said looking at him. "You are going to poke someone's eye out. Plus you are saying it wrong-"

Ron cut her off.

"You do it then if you are so clever."

I groaned at that. I already knew she knew how to do the spell. She practices some of the charms in the book in the dorm room. She smirked as if she was about to make him feel miserable, which was probably going to happen. Ron and Hermione will never get along at this rate.

"Wingardium Leviosa." She pronounced clearly and her feather lifted up, like I knew it would.

Ron pushed his feather off his desk and pouted. Hermione sent him a smirk.

"Look everyone!" Professor Flitwick announced. "Miss Granger has done it."

Seamus become more motivated seeing Hermione was successful and frantically tried to get the feather to levitate, only he wasn't saying the words right. Before anything else could happen a boom was heard throughout the charms classroom. Everyone turned to see a singed Seamus. His eyebrows were burnt off, and his hair look like electricity went through it.

"Looks like he needs a new feather professor." Harry said laughing at his friend's expense.

Seamus pushed Harry out of his seat, before stealing his feather in retaliation.

After class I stayed back to ask professor Flitwick a question about how I would be able to keep the item I'm levitating stay in the air longer. He said it was a matter of concentration and confidence. After that I ran to catch up with Ron and Harry. However before I got there I saw Hermione rushing past them crying after she bumped Ron in the shoulder. My protective instincts kicked in.

"What did you do?" I asked Ron outraged.

"Nothing I just said the truth," Ron explained, "It's not my fault she can't take it."

At that Seamus laughed. I turned to him and if glares could kill, Seamus would be ten feet under by now.

"I know the boy who can't even do a simple spell without blowing something up, is not laughing at someone else's misfortunes." I snapped before turning back to Ron.

"And you she was just trying to help you in class, it's your fault that you can't take kindness." I snapped before running after her, but before I could Ron grabbed my arm.

"We were your friends first." Ron stated.

"I don't go by who I became friends first." I said, "If you're my friend I stick up for you. I've stuck up for you and Harry as I will always do. I'm going to do the same for Hermione."

I pulled my arm out of his hand and tried to catch up to Hermione, but sadly I had no idea where she ran off to. I tried the common room, the dorm, and the library. All places I knew she would go to. Ignored my stomach growling at me for food. When it was obvious I wouldn't find her, I decided to go to the feast after I went to the bathroom. I assumed she didn't want to be found, and I would talk to her in the common room tonight. When I got to the bathroom however, I could hear a girl crying in one of the stalls. I walked next to the stall and knocked on the door. The crying stopped for a second.

"Hermione is that you?" I asked calmly.

"Go away." She mumbled her voice shaking.

"Hermione please, what happened? I just want to help." I said soothingly.

"I'm not coming out of this stall." She said stubbornly.

"Fine but I'm coming in." I said firmly and pushed the stall open.

Unfortunately she locked it, but I remembered the spell she did to unlock the door in the third corridor, with demon dog inside of it.

"Alohamora."

It worked and I opened the stall door. Hermione's eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were puffy. Poor dear. I grabbed some tissues from the bathroom tissue dispenser and handed them to her. She silently thanked me before dabbing the tears under her eyes.

"I don't know what Ron told you-" I started but Hermione cut me off.

"He said I was annoying and that was the reason you were only my friend. And it was out of pity." She said so quietly I barley heard her.

"Don't listen to him." I soothed. "Ron's just jealous about how good you are at spells. See he thinks that he needs to be the best to make at something to make something out of himself since he thinks he's just another Weasley. Obviously it won't be charms class, but he'll find it eventually. However in class, you showing him up kind of reminds him of his brothers showing him up and that's why he gets angry."

"How do you know this?" Hermione asked confused. "Ron isn't one to show feelings."

"It's kind of obvious, the way he talked on the train, that he felt overshadowed by his brothers." I shrugged. "Another thing, I did not become your friend out of pity. I became your friend because you are funny, nice, smart, and help me with my Transfiguration homework." I joked at the end making her laugh.

She was quiet again. Which was not normal, the happy Hermione could talk a mile a minute.

"If you just show them the true Hermione, and not the one you show in class, they would like you." I said handing her another tissue. She blew her nose and threw it away. She finally looked up at me and I realized how much dirt she had on her face. Ron could be a git sometimes.

"Come on," I said grabbing her hand, "let's get you cleaned up."

I pulled her to the sink and ran some water on a paper towel and handed it to her. She dabbed the dirt until it was gone. She turned to me, and her eyes were still a little red. I got out my wand and looked at her.

"I know a spell to get rid the redness in your eye." I told her.

She nodded and I did the spell. It worked, it looked like she wasn't crying at all.

"How did you know how to do that?" She asked.

"You learn spells like that when you live with a family who doesn't believe in showing feelings." I said my voice empty of emotion.

"What?" Hermione asked confused.

"In my family," I explained, "Showing any emotion is considered a weakness and makes you vulnerable. You learn that at a young age, and it kind of sticks to you sometimes."

"That's idiotic." Hermione said, "Showing emotion keeps you sane. If anything not feeling anything is a weakness."

_Well when you mostly feel fear, sadness, anger, hate, and depression at home, sometimes it is better to not be able to feel anything_. However I couldn't tell her this, I didn't want to bring her into my life problems. She is so happy and cheery all the time, when Ron isn't being a git. She's better off not knowing.

I continued to help her get rid of the dirt on her face that she missed until something stopped us. A horrible smell passed through the room. I know what you are thinking, it's a bathroom of course it's going to smell. However it wasn't your usual bad bathroom smell. It smelt like rotten milk and boiled eggs mixed with dirty socks. We plugged our nose and looked around. No one was in the bathroom, besides Hermione, when I got in here. Hermione looked up and screamed. I gulped. Somehow a giant mountain troll was able to get into the girls bathroom. Hermione stood their shocked, unable to move. The troll was about to hit her with its club, but I grabbed her away in time and pushed her under the sink behind me. I ducked under the first sink trying to think of a way to distract it enough for Hermione to go get help. The troll was about to smash its club on the sink I was under when a piece of pipe hit it in the head. It didn't seem to hurt the troll, but it did get its attention. Ron and Harry came to our rescue.

"Confuse it." Harry yelled

Ron threw broken pieces of pipe on the wall, and Harry clanked pieces of metal together. It seemed to work for a while, until it started to get annoyed. Hermione who was the closest to the beast, was the person it decided to go after. Hermione was still in shock not being able to move. The troll was trying to grab her when I pushed her out of the way. However the damn thing grabbed me by my leg and held me upside down.

"WHO LET IN A BLOODY TROLL, ANYWAY?!" I yelled frantically.

The troll began to shake me, making me dizzy. It brought its club up to hit me. I thought that this was it. I didn't ever think of a way I would die, but I didn't think it would be by a Mountain in my first year. But before that could happen, Harry did something either incredible brave or really stupid. He ran at the troll and jumped on its back. In the process his wand went up the troll's nose. The troll went on a rampage and in the process dropped its club.

"Ew troll bogeys." Harry muttered holding on its neck.

Ron picked up his wand and pointed it at the troll's club.

He gulped before staying the spell very clearly. "Wingardium Leviosa."

It worked the club was lifted off of the ground and into the air making the troll look up confused. Ron lifted it until it was above the troll's head. He let it go and it hit the troll. It began to fall over, and in the process it had dropped me from a tall height. I landed on my head, which gave me a blistering headache instantly. I opened my eyes and black spots blocked my vision. I couldn't see what was happening. I tried to push myself back up to my feet, but failed. All my strength was gone. I fell to the ground and let the darkness take over me.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: My "loving" parents, nightmares, and Quidditch

I was freaking out. I had no knowledge of where I presently was. The shadowy lighting of the area prevented me from seeing where I'm currently at. I don't know what I'm running from, the only thing I did know was that the cloaked figure pursuing me was getting closer by the second. I sprinted frantically looking for a way out. I was shielding something in my hand. I didn't recognize what it was, but I knew I couldn't let the cloaked figure get its hands on it. I was about to get to the exit, when fire blasted from the ground appeared, blocking the only visible way out. I groaned at my horrid luck. The cloaked figure stopped in front of me, laughing. It was about to pull down its hood, when a spell hit him. I turned around to see Harry pointing his wand at the covered figure. I dashed across the room, racing towards the windows. I took a gaze at what I was protecting. It was a small red stone that didn't give the impression of being very significant. Why was I laying my life down for this minuscule, little red stone? I strained myself to open the window, however it was locked. I instantly thought of smashing it open. Hopefully we weren't far up and we could jump out without getting hurt. Before I slapped myself for being foolish. I was a witch; I could just cast Alohomora at it and it would unlock. I grabbed my wand and was about to say the spell. Before I could do that however, the cloaked figure disarmed me using a disarming spell. I looked up, and the cloak fell revealing an ugly man. His face resembled a snake like creature. His face was pale green and instead of a nose he had slits. His eyes were a snake's eye, but blood red.

"Hand me the stone." He yelled in a commanding voice.

"Never!" I threw it at Harry, who in turn caught it.

Harry was about to send another spell at the snake man, but stopped short. The ugly man had grabbed hold of me and was pointing his wand into my neck.

"It seems I have found your weakness Potter." He taunted, pushing his wand even farther in my neck. I tried to get away from him, but he was much stronger than me. Curse my tiny eleven year old strength.

"Let her go, she has nothing to do with this." Harry pleaded.

"What's wrong Potter? Got a little crush." The snake man mocked.

What surprised me was that Harry blushed a little. We were just friends...right? I shook my head, it wasn't the time for that question.

"I'll make this easy, hand over the stone potter, and I won't kill the girl." He finished.

"No! Harry don't do it." I yelled.

The snake like man slapped me across the face successfully silencing me.

"Don't touch her!" Harry protested.

"You know it would be a shame to spill such pure blood that this girl possesses in her veins." The snake man mocked Harry while playing with a strand of my hair.

Harry gulped before handing the stone to the man.

"You know Harry, you Gryffindor's trust way too easily." The evil man said before slashing my throat with his wand with a spell.

All I could see was Harry's tears spill, just like the blood coming from my neck.

I woke up covered in sweat. I looked around not recognizing my surroundings. I soon realized that I was in the hospital wing. The table on the side of me held a stack parchment and a basket full of candy. I tried to get up, however that was a huge mistake. I fell over, not able to carry my weight so soon. Madam Pomfrey hurried over, from hearing the noise, and was helping me back onto the hospital bed.

"My dear, are you okay?" She asked.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked ignoring her question.

"Four days my dear." She said shocking me. "Your friends have been anxious. They have been visiting you every day. It gets annoying because they never want to leave."

"What about my brother?" I asked.

I didn't think he would visit after my fall out with him before the duel that never happened.

"Oh he only comes when your friends aren't here." She answered. "He mostly just holds your hand and talked to you about his day, hoping you could hear him. It kind of shocked me actually, I didn't know he was caring."

"Yeah no one does." I mumbled.

She handed me a potion.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It's for your head." She explained, "Any moment now the other potion will wear off, and you will probably get a massive headache."

I swallowed it without a complaint. Even though it tasted horrible, it was better than having a migraine.

"Your parents will be here any moment." She told me before taking the flask back from me.

That was the last words I would ever want to hear at this moment.

"What!?" I exclaimed.

"Well we obviously have to write to your parents, that you woke up. After all you did get attacked by a troll." She said like it was obvious.

Okay so maybe it was, but still. I groaned knowing this wouldn't be a happy visit. I sat down and fell asleep again, hoping that their visit wouldn't go too bad. Though I knew deep down that I was just deceiving myself. I awoke once more when I heard the door open and slam close. My mom hurried towards me and embraced me. That was the first thing that stunned me today.

"Athena Narcissa Malfoy!" She shrieked. "Don't you ever do that to me again!"

"I'll leave you guys alone." Madam Pomfrey said before walking out of the hospital wing.

_No don't leave! _I though in vain.

My mom was cheerful to see me awake, my father on the other hand… not so much.

I gulped knowing I was in for it.

"Do you know what you put your mother through?" He said angrily. "She was worried to death when she got the note from Dumbledore."

I was about to talk but he cut me off.

"And what? Over a stupid mudblood who thought she was good enough to stop a troll." He said annoying me.

"What was I supposed to-" I began, but he cut me off again.

"Leave her!" He yelled. "If she was stupid enough to go after it, she deserves to die."

"No one deserves to die." I said firmly.

"Anyone who is of muggle decent does." Father said. "And I thought you knew better than this."

"Know better than what?!" I yelled. "Saving someone's life. Saving someone from a fate that they don't-"

Of course father cut me off again.

"To know better than risking your life, a pureblooded one, for a girl who has no wizarding blood in her at all."

"If you would just listen to me-" I said before I was cut off again.

"I knew being in Gryffindor would change you." He interrupted. "I am going to talk to Dumbledore, and get him to put you in Slytherin; where you belong."

"But I belong in Gryffindor the hat said so himself!" I protested. Okay so maybe that was a lie, but I couldn't let him know that.

Before I knew It Father slapped me across the face.

"No daughter of mine will ever say that." Father hissed. "Do not ever repeat that in front of me again."

Tears threatened to come out of my eyes, but I held them back. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting him see me cry.

"You will never talk to that mudblood or those blood traitors again." Father instructed. "If I hear from Draco, that you are still talking to them…" Father broke off. "Let's just say you are better off not coming home for the summer."

"You can hit me all I want!" I retaliated, "it won't change the fact that I don't believe in blood purity."

Father looked like he wanted to hit me again, but refrained from for my mother's sake.

A red hand print stayed on my face. Father and mother left after that. I couldn't hold back my tears after that. My dad just ruined my happiness. I would lose my best friends, and they would think I am a jerk. You know what, I don't care what he says, he can take me out of Gryffindor, but he can't force me to ignore Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

The door opened, but I didn't care enough to look up. I just figured it was Madam Pomfrey.

"Athena?" Harry's voice asked, as he saw me crying. "What's wrong?"

"Everything." I replied turning away so he wouldn't see the slap mark. He turned my face back to him and looked angry when he saw the hand print on my cheek.

"What happened?" He asked angrily.

"My parents came to see me." I started but Harry cut me off.

"They did this to you?" He asked outraged.

"My dad did, after I told him that I wanted to stay in Gryffindor." I told him.

"Athena," Harry said holding my face. "That's child abuse, you need to tell someone."

"Trust me if I did, nothing would happen." I replied. "My father has the ministry wrapped around his little finger. Plus they wouldn't listen to an eleven year old. The Minister is an idiot."

"What if you ran away and lived at my place?" Harry suggested. "Sirius wouldn't mind. He likes you, thinks you're spunky. Remus acts like you annoy him, but he likes you too… deep down."

"As much as I would love to take that offer," I told him, "It would get you and Sirius in trouble. My family would accuse Sirius of kidnapping. And Like I said Father has the ministry wrapped around his little finger. He would go to Azkaban straight away."

"Don't worry we can handle anything they can throw at us." Harry said in his macho voice.

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that my safety would cost Sirius's." I finished firmly.

"Fine." Harry said unhappily. "But the offer still stands if you ever need it."

"You can't tell anyone." I told him.

Harry looked like he was going to protest, but I cut him off.

"No Harry. If he finds out it will only get worse." I told him.

"Athena-"

"Please. I'm begging you."

"Fine." Harry said reluctantly.

I pulled him into a hug. Harry pulled me closer to him. We just stayed like that for a while not moving.

"So what happened while I was asleep?" I asked him trying to change the subject.

"Well you would be happy to know that Ron and I have become friends with Hermione." He informed me.

"Finally!" I said happily.

It would be so much easier being friends with all three of them when they all like each other.

"Also today is my first Quidditch match." Harry said happily.

I jumped up happily.

"I want to go watch it so bad." I yelled. "I've been wanting to see a Quidditch match for a long while now."

"That's if Madam Pomfrey lets you go." Harry said. "She is very protective of her patients and probably wants you to stay here a few days."

At that moment Madam Pomfrey came in. When she saw the hand print on my cheek she became outraged.

"What happened to you dear?" She said looking at my face.

I looked at Harry in hopes he had an answer.

"It's my fault Madam Pomfrey." Harry said faking shame.

"You did this Potter?" She asked shocked.

"We were about to high five each other but I missed and slapped her face by accident." He said.

I groaned. This was the excuse he came up with? Madam Pomfrey looked at me and I nodded. She didn't look convinced but she let it go. She grabbed another potion and handed it to me.

"That should take the bruising away from your cheek." She explained.

I thanked her before taking it.

"Madam Pomfrey." I said, "Is it possible that I could go see the Quidditch game today?"

"I don't know dear. You just woke up, you need to rest." She replied.

"Please!" I begged. "Maybe a game would cheer me up, plus it would get me fresh air."

"I don't know."

"Please." I pleaded.

"Fine, but if you begin to feel bad, come straight back here." She said reluctantly.

I jumped up and hugged her.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I yelled happily.

I was almost dancing with joy.

"I want someone with you the whole time too." She said.

"No problem." Harry said grabbing my arm before escorting me to the common room.

When we got there Hermione and Ron jumped up and hugged me. We all sat down on the sofa. The common room was empty except for us three.

"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked concerned.

"I'm good." I reassured her.

We talked and caught up with each other. However things got serious when the dog was mentioned again.

"There's something we need to tell you." Ron said.

"After we knocked out that troll all the teachers came rushing in." Harry began. "Snape was one of them, but he was limping. He had a dog bite on his leg."

"So you are saying that Uncle Severus is after what that dog is guarding?" I asked.

"Yes and we might have a clue on what it is." Hermione answered.

"When I went to Diagon Alley, Sirius and I went to Gringots." Harry began. "Along with my money, he went to get another thing. He said it was Hogwarts business and wouldn't tell me what it was. What was strange was that the same vault he went to, was the same vault that got broken into."

"Did you see what was in that vault?" I asked him.

"No it was in a small parcel." Harry said. "But whatever was in that parcel must be very valuable."

"So your saying whatever is in that parcel is what that dog is guarding." I finished.

"Yes, but that is all we know." Ron added.

"Uncle Severus isn't greedy." I stated, "No matter how horrible he can be sometimes, he wouldn't do that."

"Athena, why would he have a dog bite then?" Harry asked.

"Maybe he was trying to protect it?" I asked weakly.

"Athena, I'm guessing that he was the one to let the troll in as a diversion to get to whatever the dog is guarding, but couldn't get past it." Harry explained.

"Okay, but Harry you are just assuming this. I know my Godfather, he wouldn't do this." I stated.

"Maybe you don't know him as much as you think you do." Ron said.

I looked at the time and jumped up.

"Harry you are going to be late." I told him.

He shot up and ran out of the common room to head towards the Quidditch pitch.

I went upstairs to change into clean clothes. I decided to be festive since this was probably the last time I'll be in Gryffindor for a Quidditch match. I wore red skinny jeans and a Gryffindor long-sleeved t-shirt that I made. I put a red bow in my hair before wearing a Gryffindor scarf and mittens. It was starting to get really cold. Hermione and Ron, helped me to the Quidditch pitch following Madam Pomfrey's orders.

We sat in the Gryffindor side next to Dean, Seamus, and Neville. We were chatting for a little bit until the teams began to walk onto the field.

Oliver Wood, a handsome fifth year who was the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, walked up to the Slytherin's captain. I had no idea what his name is, but he reminded me of the troll in the bathroom we battled four days ago. They shook hands to show friendly competition, but the exchange itself didn't look friendly at all.

"Now I want a nice clean game." Madam Hooch said, apparently she was the referee. She released the snitch and the two bludgers. She held the Quaffle in her hand. She threw it in the air and blew the whistle starting the game.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor – what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too -"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor."

The Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Katie Bell, - back to Johnson and - no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes - Flint flying like an eagle up there - he's going to sc- no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle - that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH - that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger - Quaffle taken by the Slytherins - that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger - sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which - nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really flying - dodges a speeding Bludger - the goal posts are ahead - come on, now, Angelina - Keeper Bletchley dives - misses - GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins.

"Budge up there, move along."

"Hagrid!" I exclaimed happily.

They squeezed together to give Hagrid enough space to join them.

"Bin watchin' from me hut," said Hagrid, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," said Ron. "Harry hasn't had much to do yet."

"Kept outta trouble, though, that's somethin'," said Hagrid, raising his binoculars and peering skyward at the speck that was Harry.

Way up above them, Harry was gliding over the game, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. When Angelina had scored, Harry had done a couple of loop-the-loops to let off his feelings. I rolled my eyes a little at that. Now he was back to staring around for the Snitch.

Once he caught sight of a flash of gold, but it was just a reflection from one of the Weasley's wristwatches, and once a Bludger decided to come pelting his way, more like a cannonball than anything, but Harry dodged it and Fred Weasley came chasing after it.

"All right there, Harry?" he had time to yell, as he beat the Bludger furiously toward Marcus Flint.

"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan was saying, "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell, and speeds toward the - wait a moment - was that the Snitch?"

A murmur ran through the crowd as Adrian Pucey dropped the Quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that had passed his left ear.

I laughed at that, he was obviously a bad chaser, you aren't supposed to be distracted by the snitch.

Harry saw it obviously. In a great rush of excitement he dived downward after the streak of gold. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it, too. Neck and neck they hurtled toward the Snitch -all the Chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in midair to watch.

Harry was faster than Higgs - he could see the little round ball, wings fluttering, darting up ahead - - he put on an extra spurt of speed - WHAM! A roar of rage echoed from the Gryffindors below - Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry's broom spun off course, Harry holding on for dear life.

"Foul!" screamed the Gryffindors.

Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Flint and then ordered a free shot at the goal posts for Gryffindor. But in all the confusion, of course, the Golden Snitch had disappeared from sight again.

Down in the stands, Dean Thomas was yelling, "Send him off, ref! Red card!"

"What are you talking about, Dean?" said Ron.

"Red card!" said Dean furiously. "In soccer you get shown the red card and you're out of the game!"

"But this isn't soccer, Dean," Ron reminded him.

Hagrid, however, was on Dean's side.

"They oughta change the rules. Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air."

Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides.

"So - after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating

"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul

'Jordan, I'm warning you -"

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Johnson, who scores without no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

It was as Harry dodged another Bludger, which went spinning dangerously past his head, his broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch.

I think I was the only other person who saw what was going on. It was like his broom was trying to buck him off. He had completely lost control of it. He was zigzagging in the air. Harry maintained a tight grip on it.

Lee was still commentating.

"Slytherin in possession - Flint with the Quaffle - passes Black- passes Bell - hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose –only joking, Professor - Slytherins score - A no...

The Slytherins were cheering. No one else seemed to have noticed that Harry's broom was behaving strangely. It was carrying- him slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went.

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled. He stared through his binoculars. "If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom... but he can't have..."

Suddenly, people were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Ron whispered.

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic - no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."

At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd.

"What are you doing?" moaned Ron, gray-faced.

"I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Snape - look."

I grabbed the binoculars. Uncle Severus was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath.

"He's doing something - jinxing the broom," said Hermione.

"I don't believe it." I murmured sadly. Was my godfather really trying to kill Harry? I know he doesn't like him, but killing him?

"What should we do?" Ron asked, worried.

"Leave it to me."

Before any of us could say another word, Hermione had disappeared.

The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terrified, as the Weasleys flew up to try and pull Harry safely onto one of their brooms, but it was no good - every time they got near him, the broom would jump higher still. They dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell.

Marcus Flint seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing.

"Come on, Hermione," Ron muttered desperately.

I crossed my hands hopping that Harry would be okay, and that Hermione's plan would work. Suddenly, Harry was suddenly able to climb back on to his broom. Hermione must have been successful in stopping Snape.

"Neville, you can look!" Ron said. Neville had been sobbing into Hagrid's jacket for the last five minutes.

Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick.- he hit the field on all fours - coughed - and something gold fell into his hand.

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion.

I ran towards the bottom of the Quidditch pitch and hugged Harry out of excitement. He picked me up and twirled me for a second before putting me down. I left to congratulate Fred and George while people were running up to Harry to give him a pat on the back. Sirius came down and gave him a high five and a hug.

"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Flint was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference - Harry hadn't broken any rules.

We were being made a cup of strong tea back in Hagrid's hut, Sirius was there as well.

"It was Snape," Ron was explaining, "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid. "Why would he do somethin' like tha'?"

"As much as I don't like the guy." Sirius began. "I don't think he'd be the type to try to kill someone."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and I looked at one another, wondering what to tell them.

"We've found out something about him," Harry told Hagrid and Sirius. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"Fluffy? It should be named Rex or Spike or something else vicious," I commented.

"Yeah - he's mine - bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year - I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-"

"Yes?" said Harry eagerly.

"That's not the point." Sirius scolded. "The point is how did you find out about it?"

"That doesn't matter." I answered. "The point is that my uncle is trying to steal it."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione. "I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all five of yeh - yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel -"

"Aha!" said Harry, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

"God job." Sirius said sipping his tea

Hagrid looked furious with himself.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Christmas and Mirror Mirror on the wall.

Christmas came fast after that. Several feet of snow blanketed the ground of Hogwarts. The lake was frozen solid, which some people ice skated on. The Weasley twins were punished for bewitching snowballs so they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off of his turban. A few of the poor owls had to be nursed back to health after they flew through the stormy sky to deliver mail. The whole school was bursting with holiday cheer. Even the Slytherins seemed jollier than usual. Their frowns weren't as defined. Everyone seemed happy, well everyone except for me. My father had written me to tell me, that he was going to get Dumbledore to change me to Slytherin after the Holidays. On top of that Draco is still ignoring me, even after I've tried to apologize to him. After the tension in my family that I've caused, I decided it was best to stay at school for the Holidays. Hermione was going back to visit her parents for Christmas, she was missing them a lot. Harry was staying since Sirius was a teacher and had to stay anyway. Shaggy (Remus) was feeling sick, according to Harry, and couldn't visit. Ron and his brothers were staying too. His parents were going visit his brother Charlie in Romania and couldn't afford to bring all of them. Thank merlin that Lavander and Pavarti were leaving too. I wouldn't be able to stand it if I had to stay in the dorm room with just them. I would go insane. I got up and changed into a grey turtle-neck sweater and pants with fur boots since it was so cold outside. After putting my hair into a pony-tail, I left for breakfast.

The Great Hall looked beautiful. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. Garlands of holly and mistletoe hung around the walls. Twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room. Some of the trees were sparkling with icicles, others glittering with candles. The biggest tree stood in the middle of the room. It was bare, but Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were starting to decorate it.

I looked over to see Harry and Ron playing Wizards chess on the Gryffindor table. Everyone else was either eating breakfast or was in their room finishing packing. The students leaving for the holidays were departing today around noon. I sat down next to Harry. He was concentrating on the game. I knew Ron was going to win the game. Ron was amazing at Wizards chess. I was okay at it, but not great to where I always win. I haven't seen Ron lose a game yet. Harry on the other hand was rubbish at it. So it wasn't a surprise when Ron smirked and put the move that he knew would finish the game making him victorious. Harry, being the sore loser he is, saw this and pushed the chess board off the table. All the pieces fell off the board.

"I guess we will never know." Harry smirked.

Ron punched him in the stomach jokingly.

"Did you just punch me?" Harry asked.

"I guess we will never know." Ron mocked.

Harry and Ron began to rough house.

"Hey guys," Hermione said sitting down next to me, with her suitcase.

"Hey Hermione." Ron and Harry said, still play fighting.

Hermione sent me a questioning look. I just shrugged, I had no words to explain this.

They were pulled apart by Sirius who had thought they were actually fighting. Once they told him, that they were just messing around and not mad at each other, he didn't take away points. Sirius just told them to stop rough-housing.

They sat back at the table, acting like nothing ever happened.

"You guys are idiots." I stated rolling my eyes.

"But we are your idiots." Harry stated winking.

"I've see you've packed." Ron said looking at her luggage.

"Yeah the train leaves in half an hour. I just wanted to come tell you guy's goodbye before I left." Hermione explained.

"See I told you we would grow on you." Ron said putting his arm around her jokingly.

"Get your arm off of me," She replied, "before I cut it off and feed it to the Giant Squid."

Ron immediately removed his arm from her shoulder.

"I kind of like having two arms." He said. "Plus I think the squid is frozen with the lake."

"And on that note, I have to get going to the boat that brings us to the train." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"Happy Christmas." I exclaimed giving her a hug.

"See I would hug you too, but you threatened to feed my arm to a squid." Ron stated. "I think I will refrain from doing so."

Hermione rolled her eyes before pulling him into a hug.

"I'm calling it." I whispered to Harry. "They are going to have tiny studious gingers together."

"I bet they're together by the end of fourth year." Harry whispered back.

When they broke away, Ron's ears turned the color of his hair.

"What no hug for the awesome one?" Harry asked holding out his arms.

"I already hugged Athena." Hermione mocked.

Hermione gave him a small hug before grabbing her rolling suit case.

"Okay guys, I have to go. Remember to look in the library for Flamel." Hermione said.

Ron groaned, "We must have looked in there a hundred times already."

Hermione let a smirk appear on her face.

"Not in the restricted section." She said smugly, "Happy Christmas."

She walked away from us, almost as if she was trying to have a dramatic exit.

"We have had a bad influence on her." Ron stated.

We had searched the library every day since Hagrid let it slip that there was a man named Flamel involved. The only thing was, it is like the guy didn't exist. We had looked in books all about recent famous wizards or recent developments, but hadn't seen a word about Nicholas Flamel. I was tempted to go home just to look in my dad's library. He had hundreds of books in there, mostly dark magic books, but if the man was famous in the wizarding world, he would be in there. Then I remembered that I wasn't welcomed home, and I honestly didn't want to be there anyway. The point was Nicolas Flamel was very hard to find.

However, we had not looked in the restricted section of the library. Unfortunately, you needed a signed note from one of the Professors to look there. Harry thought of asking Sirius, but we knew no matter how cool he was, he would never write us that note. I wondered how in the heck Hermione expected us to be able to look through the restricted section without getting caught in the process.

Once the holidays started, however, Ron, Harry, and I had too much of a good time to think of Flamel. We had the whole common room to ourselves, besides Ron's brothers. We were finally able to get a spot near the fireplace to warm ourselves up. We roasted marshmallows on a toasting fork while Harry told us funny stories about Sirius and Shaggy. I knew that I was going to have much more fun at Hogwarts for Christmas than I would ever had at home. The only thing that could have made it better is if Draco wasn't still mad at me.

On Christmas day, I awoke to see a little pile of presents next to my bed. I got up happily and went into the boy's dorm. Both boys were sleeping. Ron had a small puddle of drool near his chin. Harry was snoring with his mouth wide open. So naturally I decided to wake up the sleeping beauties.

Ron got up no problem, once I told him we were going to open up presents in the common room with everyone. He just grabbed his small pile of presents and went into the common room. Harry on the other hand, decided that he wanted to sleep in. Wrong choice…

"Aguamenti." I whispered.

He jumped up immediately as water poured all over him. He, along with his bed, were soaked. I noticed that for once his hair was flat… it only took a lot of water to get it that way.

"Well you should have woken up when I told you to." I shrugged.

"You know what?" Harry smirked. "I'll let it slide since its Christmas and it's a time for joy."

I looked at him confused for a second, not expecting him to be okay with the fact that I dumped water on him.

"In fact, I'm so happy that it's Christmas that I want to hug you." Harry said mocking.

So that was his plot. Evil genius.

"You'll never take me alive." I yelled, before running out of the boy's dorm.

I ran down the stairs with Harry chasing close behind. I ran and hid behind Ron, who looked very confused.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Ron hide me, Harry's trying to hug me." I exclaimed.

His confusion only grew at that statement.

"That fiend?" He said although it came out as a question.

Harry picked me up from behind Ron and gave me a crushing hug. While it was successful in get me wet, it also accomplished in suffocating me. Darn my weak eleven year oldness. After laughing at my misfortune, Fred and George decided to take pity on us and said a spell to dry us off. After that we opened our presents.

My mom decided to buy me an extravagant dress that she knew I would never wear. It was very pretty, but I don't like to show off the fact that we have a lot of money while people, like Ron's family, struggled to afford things. I didn't get anything from father, although I wasn't expecting anything after I yelled at him. Mrs. Weasley sent me a Weasley sweater which shocked me a little. After all she didn't exactly like my parents. It was an emerald green with an A on it. Uncle Severus sent me a new potions book that held potions for second year. I assumed he wanted me to get a head start on next year. Hermione got me a bracelet, which she called a friendship bracelet. She wrote that is very popular with Muggles that they exchanged matching bracelets to show their friendship. Hagrid got me a leather jacket. Ron got me candy, which I was thankful for. My candy stash was starting to be depleted. I think Lavander and Pavarti has found it and has been stealing some. I had an idea to catch them, but they'd have to come back from break for the plan to work.

"Here you go." Harry said, handing me a small gift. "I wanted to hand it to you instead of sending it."

I opened it to see a silver necklace with a snitch on it as a charm.

"It's beautiful." I smiled, Harry grabbed it and helped me put it around my neck.

"It was the first snitch I ever caught." Harry explained, "I was five and on training broom playing with Sirius. I'm sure he let me win, but it still counts."

I hugged him.

"Harry and Athena sitting in a tree," Fred, George chanted, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"I can spell too. Fred and George in the hospital wing. I-N-J-U-R-E-D" I threatened

Fred and George just laughed. I'm pretty sure they imagined me, a tiny first year, trying to beat up two tall third years.

We were about to leave to go eat breakfast. Ron's brothers already left after Fred and George forced Percy to wear his Weasley sweater. And I'm pretty sure that Fred and George switched sweaters to mess with people. However I stopped short when I saw a parcel on the table that I was sure it wasn't there before. I picked it up to see a note on top of it.

Harry saw what I was looking at.

"There's one more." He said to Ron.

"What's the note say?" Ron asked.

"Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you Harry." I read out loud,

"It's not signed," Harry pointed out.

"Sirius could have sent it." Ron suggested,

"No this writing is too elegant" Harry dismissed. "Sirius's handwriting is like a four year-old with a crayon."

"What about Shaggy?" I asked.

"Maybe." Harry shrugged.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Ron asked. "Open it.

He open the parcel and something fluid and silvery grey went slithering to the floor.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ron asked.

Harry picked the silvery object up for us to realize that it was a cloak. Harry put it on over his shoulders, only to see that his body disappeared. His head was floating.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked as he saw our shocked faces.

"Not to scare you Harry, but you are literally a floating head right now." I stated.

Harry looked at his body to see that it had disappeared. He took off of the cloak and it appeared again.

"It is an Invisibility cloak!" I exclaimed shocked.

"Hey what's wrong?" Ron asked, Harry had a strange look on his face, an emotion I couldn't sort out.

"Nothing." Harry shrugged.

"Do you know all the things we could do with this cloak?" I said giving him a smirk.

Of course I was joking, but still it was sure going to come in handy whenever we needed it.

Before we could do anything else the portrait door opened again revealing Fred and George, still dragging Percy. Harry put the cloak out of sight, I assumed he wanted it to be a secret between us three, and Hermione when she came back.

"Are you guys coming or what?" They asked.

We put our gifts into our rooms, and left to go eat the Christmas dinner in the Great Hall. I had never in my life seen such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat roasted turkeys; mountains of boiled and roasted potatoes; platters of buttered peas; silver boats of thick, rich gravy. And a few wizard crackers every few feet along the table.

These fantastic party favors were up to par. And honestly mom and father never bought them, said they were tacky and childish. George pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Sirius actually didn't sit with the teachers, and instead sat with Harry and us, saying that he wanted to spend time with his Godson. He also gave him a gift, which was a new broom servicing kit, in which he loved.

Hagrid got redder and redder in the face as he drank more wine. Finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to my surprise, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided. The point of the matter was, that this Christmas was way different from any I had experienced before. There was no posh people who hate each other but pretend to like each other because they were high class in the wizarding world. There was no rude children making fun of muggle-borns or house elves. What I saw in this Christmas dinner, was happiness, love, and a since of family. I knew I was having more fun here than I could ever have at home.

When we finally left the table, everyone who stayed was laden down with a stack of thing we got out of the crackers. Some included, nonexplodable, luminous balloons, a grow-your-own-warts kit, a new wizard chess set (which I ended up giving to Ron, his was starting to get old), and for the Weasley twins, got some dungbombs.

Harry, Ron, Ron's brothers, and I spent a great afternoon having a snowball fight on the grounds. And although the guys were pretty good, I had a great throwing arm from playing Chaser when we played Quidditch at home.

Then, cold, wet, and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, where Ron broke in the chess set I gave him. Of course Harry lost, only this time Harry didn't be a sore loser and knock the board over. I assumed it was because Percy was there, and he wouldn't let them rough-house as he was a prefect.

Sirius came through the common room with Professor McGonagall. They had brought us a meal before we went to bed. Sirius stayed with us a little while talking about the stuff he did with Harry's father and Shaggy when they were kids. Fred and George listened to their every word. Apparently back in the day, Sirius, Shaggy, and Harry's dad, James, did a lot of pranking. I had a since that Fred and George had gotten ideas from their stories.

After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, Christmas cake, roasted marshmallows, and tea, everyone felt too full to do much of anything except watch Percy chase the twins all over the tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge. All the while Sirius, Harry, Ron, and I laughed wildly at their antics.

Indeed it had been the best Christmas ever, no doubt about it. However, there had been a slight nagging feeling in the back of my mind the whole day. As much as I hated my mother and father's beliefs, Christmas was a time for family, and well they had not included me into their Christmas. No matter if I knew that the Christmas would be boring and most of the people didn't like me, the nagging feeling grew. My family didn't want me there for a family event.

Even though I was so tired from cake and turkey and that tiring snowball fight, I couldn't get myself to sleep. My mind kept drifting off, and that horrible feeling began to bother me. My family wasn't even here and they were making my awesome Christmas bad for me. I decided to go sit by the fire with my blanket since it was obvious I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon.

So I was just sitting near the fire, not doing much at all, just letting my mind wonder, as I stared at the fire. I was cut out of my trance when I heard a door open and footsteps go across the floorboard. I looked around and saw nothing, and I just shrugged. I turned back to the fire when Ron and Harry appeared in front of me. I jumped and almost screamed but Harry was quick to cover my mouth.

"What the bloody-hell were you two thinking?!" I whispered-yelled.

They just smiled a little and shrugged. I know what you are thinking: Hey Athena you were there when he opened the invisibility cloak, there was a load noise and footsteps but no one was there. Don't you think that Harry or Ron is using the cloak?

Well here's the thing with that, even though I did know those facts, I am not used to the fact that someone can be invisible without using an Invisibility spell. And that spell is very difficult to learn. A lot of the seven years couldn't do it.

"What are you two doing?" I whispered.

"We are going to go look in the restricted section for Flamel, you want to come?" Harry explained.

I nodded, it wasn't like I was going to sleep anytime soon. And two we really needed to find out who Flamel is. I got under the cloak with the boys, and we crept across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Who's there?" squawked the Fat Lady. None of us said anything. We walked quickly down the corridor.

The cloak was big enough to hide all of us and possibly another person. I knew that it would be harder to hide this much people later on, once we were older. After all I won't be under five-feet for the rest of my life… I hope.

The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Harry had lit a lamp to see along the row of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along in midair, and even though I know that Harry was supporting it, the sight gave me the creeps.

The Restricted Section was at the back of the library. After we carefully stepped over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, he held up his lamp so we could read the titles. That however didn't help much, some were peeling, some were in different languages, and some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked like blood. We decided that that one should not be opened.

I began to get goose bumps, and maybe I was being paranoid but I could have sworn I heard faint whispering coming from the books. We didn't know where to start. One book caught my eye, it was large black and silver. I got it out of the shelf with a little difficulty since it was very heavy. I opened it and what happened next, was something I didn't expect to happen.

A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence- the book was screaming.

Harry, Ron, and I snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, earsplitting note. We heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside. Harry dropped the lamp, which went out at once. After we put the book back on the shelf, we ran for it. We passed Filch in the doorway and was able to leave before the door closed. We were running until we came to a halt in front of a tall suit of armor. We were running in such a panic that we weren't paying attention in where we were going.

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section." Filch's voice rang out in the hall.

Where ever we were at, Filch must have known a shortcut, because his voice was getting nearer.

"The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them." To our horror it was Uncle Severus who answered.

We stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see us, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into us - the cloak didn't stop people from being solid.

We backed away as quietly as we could. A door stood ajar to our left. It was our only hope.

We managed to get inside the room without anyone noticing. They had walked straight past the door and the wall we were standing against. The room looked like it was an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks were piled against the walls. However there was something propped up against the wall that looked like it shouldn't be there.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

We pulled off the cloak, Ron and I stood near the door, looking to see when it was safe to leave the room. Harry on the other hand moved nearer to the mirror. Something about it drew him in.

When Ron and I were certain we would be able to get to the common room without trouble, we turned to tell Harry so we can leave. However, Harry looked like he was in a trance. He was staring at the mirror. Was his ego so big that his reflection was entrancing him?

"Harry, come on." I stated, "The hall is clear."

"Guys I can see my parents in the mirror." Harry stated.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked confused.

"I don't know what kind of mirror this is, but it is showing me my parents along with Sirius and Remus." Harry said, not taking his eyes off the mirror.

"Maybe it shows your family." Ron shrugs. "After all it is probably a magic mirror."

"Here you try." Harry said, pulling me over to the mirror.

"Harry, I don't see anything." I said, I looked in the mirror and only saw my reflection.

"Look properly, stand where I'm standing." Harry instructed.

I moved to stand where he was standing, and what I saw took me by surprise.

Indeed it did show me my parents and family, however something was different. My mom and father was smiling. Mom smiles every once in a while, however, I don't think I've actually seen my dad smile in the eleven years I've been alive. I've seen him smirk plenty of times, never a real genuine smile. The reflection Draco and I were joking around and laughing as if there wasn't a care in the world. What shocked me even more was the fact that Hermione, Ron, and Harry were joking around with us, and Mother and Father didn't seem to care.

"What do you see?" Harry asked.

"I do see my family, only we are smiling and happy. We haven't been happy for a long time now. In fact I don't think I've ever seen my dad smile." I said not taking my eyes off the mirror.

"Let me try." Ron said.

I moved so he would be able to look at the mirror.

Ron gasped as well.

"What do you see?" I asked.

"Do you see your family too?" Harry asked.

"No I see myself older, except I'm head boy. Bloody-hell I'm Quidditch captain as well." He said before turning to us. "Do you think it tells the future?"

"How can it." Harry said a little depressed, "My parents are dead."

"And I seriously doubt, my parents would ever accept you guys as my friends." I added.

We took turns looking in the mirror. Although the mirror reflection brought me a slight feeling of happiness, another feeling set in. It was a mix of half joy, half of a terrible sadness, and half longing.

What happened next, shocked me, the boys began to fight over the mirror. Harry and Ron didn't want to share the mirror. Harry and Ron never fought before, they were practically inseparable. Kind of like the stories that Sirius told about him, Shaggy, and James they were always together. What power did this mirror have over our minds if it could make two best friends fight? This mirror was giving me a bad vibe.

How long we stayed there I didn't know. However we knew eventually we'd have to go back to the common room, we couldn't stay here. Somehow we managed to get back to the common room without trouble. We all went to bed, in silence, that mirror really did a toll on us.

"I want to go back again." Harry whispered to me as we were at the table eating breakfast the next day.

"Are you crazy?" I exclaimed, "That mirror is nothing but trouble."

"You sound like Hermione." Harry said.

"Harry, that mirror is giving me a bad vibe." I replied begging him not to go back.

"Athena, it's the one place I can see my family all together." Harry whispered.

I sighed. I knew that was the one thing Harry has always wanted, for his parents to be there along with Sirius and Shaggy.

"Look I know you want to go back, and I don't blame you, I want to see the mirror again to. But something isn't right about that mirror Harry. Not all magic is good magic. Take it from someone who has grown up with people in their family that practices dark magic." I tried to reason.

"Look I know you are right, but I have to go at least one more time. To get it out of my system." Harry told me.

I sighed, but nodded.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I asked.

"No this is something I have to do alone." He said.

"Fine but if you stay out too late, I'm going to get Sirius to find you. He's been worried about you too." I stated before finishing off my pancakes.

* * *

Third person point of view

That third night Harry had found the way to the mirror more quickly this time. He was walking so fast that he was making more noise, but he didn't meet any problems.

He found the mirror again and there was his mother and father smiling at him again. His father was smiling at him before he went to say a joke to Sirius and Remus, all three laughing afterwards. His mom quickly sent a light slap to his father. Harry knew that her mother wasn't really mad. But there was something else in the mirror this time. Athena, Ron, and Hermione were in the reflection this time too, only they were all joking around like his father and Sirius and Remus were doing earlier.

"So you are back again, Harry?" a voice brought him out of his trance.

Harry turned around to see no other that Albus Dumbledore. He must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror that he didn't see him.

"- I didn't see you, sir."

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, and Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling.

"So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that, Sir."

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"

"It - well - it shows me my family -"

"And it showed your friend Ron himself as head boy. It shows Athena's family only they are happy and accepting of her, instead of excluding her."

"How did you know -?"

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently. "Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?"

Harry shook his head.

"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want... whatever we want..."

"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly.

"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your parents and a complete family, see them standing around you with your current family all together. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. Athena whose home life isn't the best for her, sees her family accepting her, and actually embracing each other. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"

Harry stood up.

"Sir - Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"

"Obviously, you've just done so," Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?" He couldn't stop his curiosity.

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."

Harry stared.

"One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People still insist on giving me books for some reason."

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been truthful. Then again, Harry thought, it might have been a personal question.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: We finally Know who the bloody freaking hell is Nicolas Flamel

After that night Harry didn't go back to the mirror, but he didn't tell me why. I just assumed he realized it wasn't real and decided to stop kidding himself. I was just happy he had finally been knocked out of the funk he was in. We were in the library again, looking for Flamel. Or should I say Hermione, Harry, and Ron was. I had basically given up on ever finding out about him. I was actually tempted to ask my father about it. He knew almost every famous wizard nowadays. However, that would be a horrible idea, my father would know something suspicious was going on. And knowing him would probably try and take the thing Fluffy is guarding himself. So while they were searching I was laying on the table near the last shelf. This was the only shelf in this enormous library that we haven't looked at yet. I didn't want to look at another book, I felt like it would make me sick. Little did I know our luck had just changed.

"Guy's how can I be so stupid." Hermione exclaimed reading the book in her hand. We all looked at her hoping our luck had just changed.

Hermione basically pushed me off the table so she could sit down with the book. I sent her a glare before sitting down next to her and Harry.

"Last week I checked this book out for a little bit of light reading." Hermione began. However Ron cut her off.

"This is light?" He exclaimed. The book itself was bigger than the bag that she carried on her back.

"Yes now pay attention." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

I was about to ask her a question, but she shushed me. I swear as much I loved that girl, she could be annoying sometimes.

"Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosophers stone." She announced.

She looked upset with our reaction. None of us knew what the heck the Philosopher's Stone was.

"Honestly do any of you read?" She humped before pushing the book towards us.

"Well if I knew what the stone was we would have found about Flamel earlier wouldn't we?" I argued.

"The Philosopher stone is a legendary substance that can change any metal into gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which turns the drinker immortal." I read quietly.

"So that's what the dog is guarding." Harry exclaimed, "It makes since anyone would want that, I mean you could live forever and have all the gold you want."

"No wonder we couldn't find him in the modern books," I stated, "He's over six hundred years old."

"Guys we can't let Snape get his hands on this stone." Harry exclaimed, "Imagine what he would do with it."

"Harry I don't think this is the type of thing my Godfather would want to steal. He isn't after money or immortality. So if he is trying to steal it, he wouldn't be stealing it for himself." I stated.

"Still if he is after the stone, it could be disastrous. I mean do you want a slimy git teaching potions forever?" Ron said.

I gave him a glare.

"What he means is, as much as you like your godfather, it could be bad if he got the stone." Harry said trying to calm me down.

"Maybe we should go tell Hagrid, he might be able to help us." Hermione exclaimed.

After classes we ran down to Hagrid's hut. We brought the invisibility cloak with us just in case. When we got there Hagrid didn't look to happy to see us.

"Sorry yeh four, I'm a little busy at the moment. Come back again maybe next week" He rushed about to close the door in our face when we exclaimed "We know about the Philosopher's stone."

"Oh." Hagrid looked a little shocked. "Come in"

His hut felt like it was on fire. It was extremely stuffy. I assumed he was cooking something because he had his fireplace going with his pot over it. I just hoped he wasn't going to offer us some. Hagrid wasn't exactly the best cook.

"Hagrid can we open up a window?" Ron asked using his hand to fan himself.

"Sorry, but we have ter keep the place warm." Hagrid replied.

"We think Snape is trying to steal it." Harry said, getting back to the topic at hand.

"Snape is one of the Professors protecting the stone." Hagrid said not believing that he would steal it

"Wait so does that mean that there are other things protecting the stone?" Hermione asked

"That's right, though it's pretty much useless. Ner one is going to get past Fluffy." Hagrid said proudly, "Not a soul knows, except for me and Dumbledore."

He then looked upset with himself. "I shouldn't have told yeh that." He said

Before any of us could comment, the thing in the pot above the fire began to shake. Hagrid picked it up with oven mitts, but it looked like it still burned a little. The thing he was holding was a giant egg.

"Hagrid what is that?" I asked confused.

Before he could answer Ron cut him off.

"I know what that is, it's a Dragon egg." Ron exclaimed but looked at Hagrid confused, "But how did you get one."

"Yeah dragons are illegal to keep." I chimed in.

"Won it off a guy in the pub, he seemed ter be happy to get rid of it as a matter of fact." Hagrid said.

The egg shook for a few more seconds before it cracked open. A huge ugly baby dragon came out. It kind of looked like a wrinkly old man, but tiny with wings.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid announced happily.

Beautiful isn't the adjective I would have used to describe it. The dragon slowly walked up to Hagrid.

"Bless his heart, he knows his mommy." Hagrid exclaimed happily.

And at that moment, was when I though Hagrid has finally lost it.

Hagrid named it Norbert and began to scratch it behind its chin. A few seconds later it sneezed and fire came out of its mouth and onto Hagrid's beard.

"Bad Norbert." He exclaimed as he put the fire out with his oven mitts. "He'll have to be trained up of course."

Hagrid looked at the window confused. "Who is that?"

We turned around to see my twin brother run away. I groaned we were going to get into some serious trouble. We walked out of Hagrid's hut, trying to get back to the common room. I was going to threaten to keep Draco's mouth shut tomorrow. After all he already doesn't like me right now, It's not like it can get worse. As we were about to walk up the stairs to get to the portrait hole, something stopped us. A clearing of a throat.

"What do you four think you are doing?" Professor McGonagall voice caused us to stop.

I gulped and face-palmed at our stupidity. We had left the cloak back at Hagrid's hut. We turned to see McGonagall looking at us with a very strict and mad face. Draco was on the side of her smirking like he won a million galleons.

"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up out of bed. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue. I was about to open my mouth but no words came out

"I hope you know how serious this whole thing is." McGonagall said, "You five will receive detention."

"I'm sorry professor." Draco started his smirk fell of his face, "I'm sure I heard you wrong. I thought you said the five of us."

"You heard me right." She began, "As noble as your efforts were, you were still out of bed. Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy I thought you had more sense than that. And Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Malfoy, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this."

We all looked down ashamed, we couldn't stand seeing McGonagall's disappointed stare. It was way worse than her usual strict one.

"Fifty points will be taken from both houses." She said.

"Fifty?" Harry gasped

We would lose the lead we won in the last Quidditch match.

"Fifty points each," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.

"Professor – please," I began

"You can't -" Harry began.

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

Two hundred points all together we lost for Gryffindor. That put Gryffindor in last place. In one night, they'd ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the house cup. We all decided to stop meddling in something that didn't concern us.

We all walked into our dorms feeling defeated, none of us speaking a word to each other. One sentence came to my mind.

What have we done?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: What the Bloody Hell is That Thing and the Forbidden Forest.

The next day went horrible for everyone. The Gryffindors noticed immediately that something wasn't right. Somehow we had gone all the way from first to last place. At first they thought it was a mistake, but then everyone had learned that we were the cause of us losing so many points. You could say we weren't exactly praised. And what made me angry was the fact that Draco was boasting about how he had caught us to his Slytherin 'buddies'. They would turn to us and snicker every few seconds. I decided enough was enough and went over to the Slytherin table. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watching, hoping that I didn't make us lose any more points, not that it mattered anymore.

I tapped Draco on his shoulder. He turned around, and when he saw it was me, his smirk turned into a frown.

"What is your problem?!" I said trying to keep my voice calm so the teachers wouldn't get suspicious however it wasn't working.

"What do you mean?" Draco said smugly, "Krabbe, Goyle and I were having a lovely conversation, until you came in ruined it. You're the one with problem."

Krabbe and Goyle laughed like the idiots they were.

"You know what I am talking about. What we were doing was none of your business." I replied back.

"Don't flatter yourself, I don't care what you do with your team of idiots." Draco said rolling his eyes.

"First have you seen the people you hang out with?" I said pointing to twiddle-dumb and twiddle-idiot, both were eating food not really paying attention anymore. "Two you were eavesdropping on us, obviously you care what we were up to."

"I was following you, because father told me to keep an eye out on you." Draco replied. "Wait until he finds out what you did."

"You mean what we did, after all you did get into trouble too." I said smugly.

"Except I was following his orders so in a way you dragged me into this." Draco said arrogantly.

"Is there a problem here?" Sirius said, being in teacher mode.

"No none at all Professor." Draco hissed as he said the word professor.

"Now Athena get back to your table." Sirius said before he left to sit back at the teachers table.

I was thankful it was only Sirius, as he usually wasn't one to take off points.

I went back to my room. I shut myself in there, not in the mood to socialize with anyone. I fell asleep after a while. I had no idea how long I was sleeping, but when I woke up it was dark out. I decided it was best to get ready for detention which was at eleven at night. What I found ironic about this was we are being punished for being out of bed after curfew, but the detention itself is past curfew. Man they need to make up their mind.

We all walked out of the common room and went to the entrance hall. Filch was already there with Malfoy standing next to him.

"Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading us outside. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at us.

"Oh yes... hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me... It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days. I've got the chains still in my office. I keep 'em well-oiled in case they're ever needed...Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."They marched off across the dark grounds. Neville kept sniffing.

I wondered what our punishment was going to be. It must have been something horrid, or Filch wouldn't be so delighted. The moon was very bright out, but it wasn't a full moon, which I was grateful for. We were ushered towards Hagrid's hut, and I had a sigh of relief. If Hagrid was running our detention, then it wouldn't be too horrible. However, that turned out to not be true.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started." Hagrid said.

Filch had to ruin it however, saying "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again - it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."

Draco stopped dead in his tracks.

"The forest?" he asked, his voice didn't sound as cool as usual. "We can't go in there at night - there's all sorts of things in there - werewolves, I heard."

"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

"Merlin! We were only out of bed at night. It's not like we murdered someone while they were sleeping." I said outraged.

"Miss Malfoy, I'd suggest you leave your comments to yourself unless you want an extra two hours in the forest, this time without Hagrid." He said with distaste. "You'll be dead before sunrise."

"Like I said we were only out of bed after curfew. Which we are doing the same thing now, only it is detention." I said outraged, seriously who came up with these punishments.

Hagrid then came striding toward them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Ron, Athena, Hermione?"

"I wouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," said Filch coldly, "they're here to be punished, after all."

"That's why yer late, is it?" said Hagrid, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Draco turned to Hagrid.

"I'm not going in that forest," he said with a panic in his voice.

"I thought you were my big, strong elder twin brother who isn't afraid of anything." I taunted.

I was still a little mad from this morning. Draco just sent me a murderous glare. Yeah I doubt we would make up any time soon.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," said Hagrid fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."

"But this is servant stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'dbe copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this..." Draco complained.

"Father doesn't care." I muttered, although I don't think anyone heard me.

"He'd tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts," Hagrid growled. "Copyin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or Yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on."

Draco sighed and nodded.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

We were led to the edge of the forest. A breeze of wind was blowing constantly making me shiver. Harry offered me his coat, which I refused, but he put it around me anyway. I was still shivering, but I don't think it was because of the wind. The forest was creepy during the day, it was ten times worse at night.

"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"Who would hurt a unicorn?" I asked a little shocked that someone would want to hurt such a gentle creature.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" said Draco, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

"It will eat all slimy Slytherins." Harry taunted.

"And that's you." Ron added.

Hermione face palmed. "I think he got that Ronald."

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

"I want Fang," said Draco quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward," said Hagrid.

"So me, Hermione, an' Ron will go one way. Draco, Athena, an' Harry with Fang go the other."

Harry and Draco both looked at each other in disgust. I sighed knowing this night just got worse.

"Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now - that's it - an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh - so, be careful - let's go."

"Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns?" Harry asked.

"I doubt it, after all they only turn into a wolf on a full moon." I explained.

"There not fast enough," Hagrid added, "It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before."

After that we came to a separated path and that's when we split up. We took the right side, while they took the left.

Draco, Harry and I were walking a path very cautiously. Fang following reluctantly after. Poor Fang's legs were trembling with every step. We walked for nearly half an hour, getting deeper into the woods.

Something caught my eye in the ground. There were splashes on the roots on the roots, meaning that the poor creature had been trashing around in pain close by.

Harry stopped us and pointed to the ground. I gasped at the bright white was gleaming on the ground. We inched closer. It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead.

"Who would do such a thing." I muttered, my heart breaking slightly.

I loved animals, and to see this was saddening.

Harry saw that I was upset and pulled me into a friendly hug. I was short enough to rest my head on his chest.

Harry decided to pull out his wand to tell Hagrid he found the unicorn, when something stopped him in his tracks.

I looked up to see a hooded figure crawling across the ground stalking the unicorn. I was immediately reminded of my night mare from when I got hit on the head after the troll attack. All three of us stood there transfixed at the sight.

The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

"AAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Draco let out a terrible scream and bolted - so did Fang. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Harry and I - unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward us.

I ran figuring Harry would follow, but Harry stood there, not moving. He let out a grunt of pain and fell over, as his hand reached up to rub his scar.

"RUN HARRY!" I yelled, before running back to him, scared for the both of us.

However before the cloaked figure could get to us, something jumped clean over us, charging at the figure. It was a centaur who chased it away. After a few minutes it looked like Harry felt better, so I helped him to his feet.

The centaur was younger than most. He had white-blond hair and a tan-cream colored mane.

"Are you two all right?" He asked in a calm voice.

The centaur had an entrancing voice, though I think all centaurs did.

"Yes, we are all right- thank you - what was that?" Harry asked.

The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Harry, his eyes lingering on the scarthat stood out, livid, on Harry's forehead.

"You are the Potter boy," he said. "You two better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time - especially for you Harry. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way."

I was shocked at this. Centaurs usually hate humans, but this one was allowing us to ride on his back. He was clearly different from the other centaurs.

"My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Harry and I could clamber onto his back.

"Hello, Firenze!" I greeted. "My name is Athena Malfoy."

"Hello tiny one." He said back, making Harry snicker. Was I seriously that short? I would have hit Harry in the back of his head, but I was afraid that I would fall off of Firenze's back.

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Two more Centaurs came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" One thundered. "What are you doing? You have _two _humans on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"

"Do you realize who this is?" said Firenze. "This is the Potter boy. The quicker he leaves this forest, the better. Plus the tiny one probably couldn't defend herself against anything in the forest."

Harry snickered at that, this time I did hit him. He rubbed his shoulder after I had punched him.

"What have you been telling them?" growled the first Centaur, It seemed like he was the leader out of the three of them. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

The second Centaur, who was slightly smaller than the first centaur, pawed the ground nervously. "Bane, I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best," he said in his gloomy voice.

Bane, the first centaur, kicked his back legs in anger.

"For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"

Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Harry hadto grab his shoulders to stay on and I had to grab him around his waist so I wouldn't fall.

"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

And Firenze whisked around; with Harry and I clutching on as best we could, as we plunged off into the trees, leaving Bane and the other centaur behind.

Neither of us had a clue to what was going on.

""Why's Bane so angry?" Harry asked. "What was that thing you saved us from, anyway?"

He didn't answer. We were passing through a patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.

"Harry Potter, Athena Malfoy, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

"No." Harry said, "You only use tail hair and the horn for potions."

I just shook my head.

"It is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," said Firenze. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

"But wouldn't it be better to die than live a cursed life?" I asked.

"It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else - something that will bring you back to full strength and power - something that willmean you can never die. Mr. Potter, Ms. Malfoy, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"

"Of course the Philosopher's stone. The Elxir of life can grant immortality! But who-" I put together

"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

"Wait you can't mean-" I cut off.

Harry grabbed his scar out of habit, obviously we were both thinking the same thing.

"Harry! Athena! Are you all right?"Hermione and Ron were running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind them.

"We're fine," said Harry. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."

"This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now."

"Good luck," said Firenze. "The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."

We went back to the common room, Harry and I shivering. This had to be the worst detention I have received. Okay so it was the only one I've received, but still.

In a matter of seconds, both of us shivered as we explained what happened to Ron and Hermione.

Harry couldn't sit down. He paced up and down in front of the fire. He was still shaking. I remained silent, not able to speak.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

I rolled my eyes at that, I told them a thousand times that he wasn't greedy for money.

"Stop saying the name!" said Ron in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them.

"Ron it's not like he can hear you." I said calmly

Harry just ignored him

"Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so... Bane was furious... he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort's coming back... Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill us... I suppose that's written in the stars as well."

"Will you stop saying the name!" Ron hissed.

"Honestly Ron, there is nothing to worry about. It's not like he is going to show up because we said his name." I said.

"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone,"Harry went on feverishly, "then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy."

Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort.

"Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

That calmed him down a little bit. He was still pacing in front of the fires. At that rate he would never calm himself.I grabbed his arm and got him to sit down. I began to rub his shoulders trying to get him to relax.

"Harry, ever since I was a little girl I was taught only one good thing from my parents: Loyalty. So if Voldemort truly is going to come back, I'll be fighting along side you. No matter what." I stated firmly.

It didn't help much, but it did relief some of the tension he had. The sky turned light before we stopped talking. We all went to bed exhausted, our throats sore.

However I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking in my mind, if my uncle does get his hands on the stone… the whole school would be in danger. It wasn't just Harry who was in danger, it was all the students and staff at Hogwarts.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Through the Trapdoor.

I had no idea how I managed to get through the finals when any moment I expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door. However, fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.  
Harry's cloak was given back to him, however it was very strange on how he got it back. Apparently he found it on his bed with a note on it that said: just in case. Not signed or anything. I assumed it was Hagrid, because we did leave it at his hut, however he doesn't exactly have the best handwriting. According to harry it was the same writing from the first note when he got it for Christmas.

Some of the exams were amusing. Professor Flitwick called them one by one to see if we could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. That was my favorite exam out of all of them.

Some of the tests were practical. Professor McGonagall's exam was to turn a mouse into a snuffbox- points were given for how pretty the boxes were, points were taken if the box still had whiskers.

Uncle Severus made most of the Gryffindors nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion… ironic I know. I did really well because, like I said, he had taught me potions before I could walk.

However I could tell Harry's scar was hurting him ever since we left the forest. He would occasionally see him rubbing it, as he made a face as if he was in pain.

Harry, however, seemed to be the most stressed out, out of all of us. Which I understood why, I mean he was dealing with a burning scar, Voldemort possibly coming back, finals, and having nightmares at night.

The last exam was history of magic. One hour of answering questions about a wizard who invented self-stirring cauldrons then we would be free. Well until the exam results came out. When Professor Binns told us to put down our quills and roll up our parchment, I began to cheer.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

We sat under the tree near the lake, talking.

"I'm just happy those bloody things are over." I said leaning against the tree closing my eyes.

"No more studing." Ron said happily, "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."

Harry was rubbing his forehead.

"I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting - it's happened before, but never as often as this."

I felt his head to see if he had a fever… Maybe he was sick? No it felt normal temperature, plus I knew that probably wasn't the reason for his scar to hurt.

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill," said Harry. "I think it's a warning... it means danger's coming..."

I looked up worried at this. "You don't mean…"

"Plus I think the stress is what is making your scar hurt." I added, "I think exams, the stone, and the heat is getting to you. Just try to relax, you are only making yourself more paranoid."

Hermione and Ron nodded agreeing with me.

"Harry, relax, Athena's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down." Ron said.

Harry nodded, but it looked like he wasn't going to calm down anytime soon.

"Hey Harry, how about when the weather cools down, we all play a game of Quidditch. I'm sure Madam Hooch would allow it, after all she really likes you." I suggested trying to cheer him up.

He nodded, but he still looked like he was still thinking about the whole situation. We had sat there quietly after that. Hermione and Ron stood up and began to skip rocks into the lake. I just sat by Harry offering comfort and left him to his thoughts.

Harry suddenly jumped up to his feet with an unrecognizable expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked

"Where're you going?" said Ron sleepily.

"I've just thought of something," said Harry. He had turned white. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

"Why?" panted Hermione, hurrying to keep up.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket?How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

My face paled at that.

"What are you talking about?" said Ron, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer. I sighed but ran faster to keep up with him. Those years of playing Quidditch at home finally paid off.

Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

"Hullo," he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

"Yes, please," said Ron,but Harry cut him off.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," said Hagrid casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off."

We all looked at him stunned at that.

"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head - that's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after... so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon... an' then... I can remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks...Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..."

"Was he interested in fluffy?" I asked

"Well - yeah - how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight of ter sleep –"

"You told him how to get past it?" I asked shocked.

Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.

"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey - where're yeh goin'?"

We all ran until we stopped at the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," said Harry."Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemortunder that cloak - it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

"It's this way." I said.

"How do you know this?" Hermione asked.

"I was called to his office, after my dad told him he wanted me in Slytherin." I shrugged.

I would tell them what happened later, but right now that wasn't important. And plus I am still in Gryffindor so it didn't really matter.

"We'll just have to -" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you four doing inside?"

It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

"We need to see Professor Dumbledore." Hermione said, rather bravely.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do."Why?"

Harry swallowed - now what?

"It's sort of secret," he said, but he wished at once he hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"It's about me professor." I interrupted, "They heard that my parents wanted to pull me out of Gryffindor, and they wanted to speak to Dumbledore about it."

"I'm sorry children, but Dumbledore left ten minutes ago." She said, "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."

"He's gone?" said Harry frantically. "Now?"

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time"

"But this is important."

"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter."

"Look," said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, "Professor - We just made up an excuse. It is actually about the Philosopher's Stone -"

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up.

"How do you know -?" she spluttered.

"Professor, we know that someone is trying to steal it. We need to warn Professor Dumbledore." I explained.

She looked at all of us with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"But Professor -" Harry and I said at the same time.

"Potter, Malfoy, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books.

"I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."

But we didn't we stayed in the same place until Professor McGonagall was out of earshot.

"It's tonight." Said Harry, "Snape's going to go steal it tonight. He found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out the way."

"I bet Uncle Severus wrote the letter." I added, "The Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

"But what can we -"

Hermione gasped. We all wheeled round. Snape was standing there.

"Good afternoon," he said smoothly. We all stared at him. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile. "You want to be more careful. Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something."

At that he walked away towards the staff room.

"Right, here's what we've got to do," Harry whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape - wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, you'd better do that."

"Why me?"

"It's obvious," said Ron. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong...'"

Hermione slapped Ron on his shoulder.

"Oh, shut up," said Hermione, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape.

"And we'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor," Harry told Ron and me.

"Come on."

But that part of the plan didn't work. No sooner had they reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school then Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper.

"I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from Gryffindor!

"From your own house?" Ron asked shocked.

"Yes, Weasley, from my own house!"

We went back to the common room, feeling a little upset.

We were sitting on the couch away from the fire. It was too hot to be near it.

"Well at least Hermione is on Snape's tail." Harry said.

And at that the portrait door opened to reveal Hermione.

"I'm sorry, Harry!" Hermione wailed. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said that I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him. I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went."

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.

They stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.

"You don't mean-"

Harry cut me off.

"I'm going out of here tonight, and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

"You're mad!" said Ron.

"No Harry!" I gasped.

"You can't!" said Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

"So what!" Harry shouted, but calmed his voice down after he saw Hermione's shocked face. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the stone, Voldemort is coming back. Haven't you heard what it was like back in the days he first tried taking over? There won't be a Hogwarts to be expelled from. He will flatten it, or turn the school into a dark art's school. Losing points won't matter anymore. Do you think he will leave your families alone either? Ron you know that Voldemort hates anyone who is a blood traitor. Hermione he will go after the Muggles once he has taken over the Wizarding world. If I get expelled before I get there, well, I'll have to go back to my home with Sirius and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going to go over to his side. I will fight dying before that will ever happen. I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you three can say will stop me. Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"

"What about Sirius? And Remus?" I asked in a small voice. That was the first time I had ever called Shaggy by his real name.

"I'm sure they will be proud of me if I die in the process of stopping Voldemort from coming back." He shrugged, though he looked like he was trying to convince himself more than us.

"You're right Harry." Hermione said.

"I'll just use the invisibility cloak." Harry said. "It's just lucky I got it back."

"But will it cover all four of us?" said Ron.

"All - all four of us?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come off it, you don't think we'd let you go alone? Besides like I said, if Voldemort does end up coming back, I will fight alongside you no matter what."

"How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and took through my books, there might be something useful..." Hermione said.

"No, you guys I can't let you go with me." Harry protested shaking his head.

"Harry, like you said, if he comes back it will affect us all. And you can't do this alone anyway. Voldemort is a very powerful wizard. You wouldn't last a second in there by yourself. You are going to need all the help you can get." I replied.

After diner we sat nervously in the common room. No one bothered us, after all we were being shunned by the rest of Gryffindor students. Not that we cared at this moment. Hermione was skimming through her books, hoping to come across one of the enchantents they were about to try to break.

Slowly, the room emptied as people went to and Ron went upstairs to get the cloak and the flute that Hagrid had given him. None of us felt like singing.

He ran back down to the common room.

"We better put on the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all four of us." I said. "If Filch spots one or our feet wandering on its own-"

"What are you doing? Said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor his toad.

"Nothing, Neville." I said, as Harry put the cloak behind his back."We were just talking about Harry's next Quidditch match."

Neville didn't look convinced.

"You're going out again. Aren't you?" he said.

"No, no, no," said Hermione. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?"

I groaned at this rate Uncle Severus might be putting Fluffy to sleep.

"You can't go out," said Neville, "you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

"Neville. This is very important." I tried to reason.

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate. "I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll - I'll fight you!"

"Neville," Ron exploded, "get away from that hole and don't be an idiot -"

"Don't you call me an idiot!" said Neville. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not to us," said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."

He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.

"Go on then, try and hit me!" said Neville, raising his fists. "I'm ready!"

Harry turned to Hermione.

"Do something," He said desperately.

Hermione stepped forward.

"Neville," she said, "I'm really, really sorry about this." She raised her wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.

Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board. Hermione ran to turn him over. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"What did you do to him?" Harry asked.

"It's the full Body-Bind," said Hermione miserably. "Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry."

"Sorry, Neville, we just really need to do this." I said as I felt guilty

"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," said Harry.

"You'll understand later, Neville," said Ron as they stepped over him and pulled on the invisibility cloak.

But leaving Neville lying on the floor motionless wasn't the first difficult thing we had to face. In our nervous state, every statue looked like Filch. Every breath of wind was a teacher breathing on their necks. St the foot of the first set of stairs, was Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat.

"Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered in Harry's ear.

"I second that." Harry added.

"No it will blow our cover." Hermione whispered.

We didn't meet up with anyone when they had finally reached the door that Fluffy was in. Which wasn't usual for us as we usually have horrid luck. The door was already ajar. Uncle Severus must have already went through.

Before we could go into the room, Harry turned around to look at us.

"If you guys want to go back, I won't blame you." He said, "You can take the cloak back, I won't need it anymore."

"Don't be stupid." Said Ron.

"We're coming," Said Hermione.

They all turned to look at me.

"Harry, you can't get rid of me that easily." I smiled.

He nodded and smiled a little before we all walked into the room.

As we walked in all of Fluffy's heads stared in our direction, even though they couldn't see us. I'm pretty sure Fluffy could smell us. Harry started to play the flute, it wasn't exactly a song, but immediately Fluffy's eyes began to droop. Slowly it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Keep playing." Ron said as we slipped out of the cloak. Hermione put it in a backpack she had brought with her for safe keeping.

"I think we will be able to pull the door open," Ron said. "Ladies first, Athena, Hermione."

"He's such a gentleman." I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.

"I'm not going first." Hermione scoffed.

"All right." Ron gritted his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs. He bent and pulled the trapdoor open.

"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Nothing - just black - there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."

Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Ron to get his attention and pointed at himself.

"You want to go first?" said Ron, "Are you sure?"

Harry nodded.

"No." I dismissed. "Harry is the most important at the moment. If anything happens to him, we might as well sign our own death warrants. I'll go first. If anything happens to me don't follow. It's not safe, send an Owl to Dumbledore."

I climbed over to it and gulped. There was no sign of the bottom. I climbed through the hole until I was holding myself up with my hands on the sides of the trapdoor opening. I looked up at them and sent them a smile before I let go.

My stomach felt like it was moved up into my lungs as I fell. Cold air rushed up as I kept falling. I braced myself for a bad landing, but instead I landed on something soft. I felt like I landed on some sort of plant.

"I'm okay!" I called up, "It is a soft landing. You can jump."

Harry and Ron followed right away, they landed next to me.

"What is this stuff?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, some sort of plant. I suppose it's here to break the fall." I shrugged.

Hermione jumped next. She stopped playin and there was a loud bark, but she had jumped before it

"We must be miles under the school." Hermione said.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron.

"Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you guys!"

She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. The plant clung to her ankles, making her unable to move.

As for Harry and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing. The plant was already up to my waist, without my notice. I wasn't able to move at all.

Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as we fought to pull the plant off ourselves, but the more we strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around us.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is - it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," snarled Ron,leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare... what did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp! It hates heat and light!" Hermione yelled.

"So light a fire!" I choked, the plant was now around my neck, slowly trying to suffocate me.

"Yes - of course - but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of bluebell flames. In a matter of seconds, we felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unravelled itself from our bodies, and we were able to pull free.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione" said Harry as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.

"Yeah," said Ron, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis -'there's no wood,' honestly."

Hermione slapped him on the shoulder.

"Okay so maybe I deserved that." Ron said rubbing his shoulder.

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

We listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" Hermione asked

"I don't know... sounds like wings to me." I added

"There's light ahead - I can see something moving." Harry said.

We reached the end of the passageway and saw a chamber. It's ceiling arching high above us. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" said Ron.

"Probably," said Harry. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once... well, there's no other choice... I'll run."

Harry ran across the room, but they didn't attack. They stayed at the top just flying around. Harry looked surprised but continued on to the door anyway. He pulled the door handle, but it was locked. I tried the Alohomora charm, but it didn't work.

"Now what?" said Ron.

"These birds... they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione.

"They aren't birds!" Harry exclaimed, "They are keys! Winged keys- look carefully. So that must mean, we have to catch one."

We turned and sure enough there were four broomsticks for us to use. The only problem there was a about thousand keys.

"But there are hundreds of them!" Hermione voiced my thoughts.

Ron examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one - probably silver, like the handle."

We each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. The keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one.

"That one!" Harry called out. "That big one - there - no, there - with bright blue wings - the feathers are all crumpled on one side."

Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.

"We have to close in on it." Harry explained. "Ron you come at it from behind, Hermione come at it from above, Athena you come from the right and I'll come from the left, one of us should be able to catch it that way."

"Right, NOW!" Harry yelled.

Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, and I flew to the right, And Harry streaked after it from the left. The key dodged us all or so I leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Their cheers echoed around the high chamber.

We landed and Harry ran to the door. He rammed the key into the lock and it worked.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

We nodded and we opened the door.

The next chamber was so dark we couldn't see anything at all. When we were able to see light we saw something that shocked us. We were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard. Completed with huge chess pieces bigger than us.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white pieces there was another door.

"How?" said Hermione nervously.

"I think," said Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen."

"It's a good thing Ron knows Wizard's chess." I said hopeful.

"This needs thinking about." Ron said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of four of the black pieces..."

Harry, Hermione, and I stayed quiet watching Ron think.

Finally he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you three are that good at chess."

"We aren't offended," Harry said.

"I kinda am." I raised my hand, but they ignored me.

"Just tell us what to do." Hermione instructed.

"Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go next to him instead of that castle. Athena you take place of the queen. "

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'm going to be a knight," said Ron.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, a queen and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving four empty squares that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and me took.

"White always plays first in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes... look..."

A white pawn had moved forward two squares. Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them.

"Harry - move diagonally four squares to the right." Ron said.

Their first real shock came when our other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

"Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."

Every time one of our men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Ron darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

"We're nearly there." Ron muttered. "Let me think, let me think…"

The white queen turned her blank face toward him.

"Yes..." said Ron softly, "It's the only way... I've got to be taken."

"NO!" Harry, Hermione, and I shouted.

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! We take one step forward and she'll take me - that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But -"

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"

"Look Ron-"

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative.

"Ready?" Ron called to us. His face pale but determined. "Here I go - now, don't hang around once you've won."

He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced.

She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor - Hermione screamed but stayed on her square - the white queen dragged Ron to one side. Fortunately it looked only as if they were knocked out and nothing more serious.

Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the left.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. We had won. The chess men bowed and cleared the board. With one last desperate look back at Ron, we ran through the door to the next passage way.

"What do you reckon's next?" Harry asked.

"Snape's must be next, we've had Sprout's devil's snare, Flitwick must have put charms on the keys, and McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive." Hermione explained.

"Knowing him it has to do with potions." I added.

They had reached another door. "All right?" Harry whispered. "Go on."

We pushed it open.

In there was a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"What do we do?" Harry asked.

We stepped on the threshold and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. We were trapped in the room.

"Look!" Hermione found a roll of paper next to the bottles. She began to read it out loud.

_"__Danger lies before you, While safety lies behind,__  
__Two of us will help you, Whichever you would find, One among us seven Will let you move ahead, Another will transport The drinker back instead,__  
__Two among our number Hold only nettle wine, Three of us are killers, Waiting hidden in line. Choose, unless you wish to stay Here forevermore,__  
__To help you in your choice, We give you these clues four: First, however slyly the poison tries to hide, you will always find some on nettle wine's left side; Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onward, neither is your friend; Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,__  
__Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; Fourth, the second left and the second on the right are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight_."

"Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn't magic - it's logic - a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

That made Harry gulp.

"Okay so one lets you go forward, one lets you go back, two is only wine, and three are poison." I said "the poison is on the left of both of the wine. The biggest and the smallest bottles are not poison. The second on the left and second on the left are the same. And the ones on the end are safe but neither are the ones to go forward." I said to myself trying to riddle it out.

However I couldn't exactly get which bottle held what inside.

Hermione finally figured it out.

"The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire- towards the stone."

"That's barely enough for two of us." Harry said.

"Which will get you back through the purple flames?" I asked.

Hermione pointed to the one at the end.

"Okay you two drink that," Harry said

I was about to protest but Harry cut me off.

"No listen. Get back to Ron. Grab brooms from the flying-key room. That will get you past Fluffy and out of the trapdoor. Go to the owlery and send for Dumbledore, we will need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

"But what if You-Know-Who is with him?" Hermione asked.

"I'm the boy who lived, not died remember." Harry joked bringing up what he said at the beginning of the year again.

Though none of us laughed.

Hermione dashed and hugged Harry.

"Harry you are a great wizard you know." Hermione said.

"I'm not good as you." Harry shrugged.

"Me!" said Hermione, "Books! And Cleverness! There are more important things- friendship and bravery, just…. Just be careful."

Hermione drank the potion and went through the flames leaving only me and Harry.

"Okay you better go too." Harry said.

"Harry did you really believe I would let you go in there by yourself?" I stated.

"Athena-"

"No Harry, I can't let you go in there by yourself." I said firmly.

"Athena you realize that if Snape really is bringing Voldemort back, that we have to take him down. Would you be able to do that to your Godfather?"

"Look if it is him that is doing this, then he has to be stopped. It might tear my heart out, but it's for the safety of Hogwarts and the Wizarding world." I said.

"Athena, I wouldn't be able to stand it if you got killed in the process." Harry said holding my hand. "I already lost my parents when they were trying to protect me… I don't want to lose you too."

"Look Harry, I will repeat what I said to Ron on Halloween. I protect my friends, and I will stand up for them. Harry I am coming with you and that is final." I said.

"Athena-"

I cut him off by drinking a small bit of the potion and handing it to Harry. It made my body cold as ice.

"Are you coming or not?" I asked as I saw Harry drink what was left of the potion.

Harry grabbed my hand and we both walked through the fire together. For a moment we saw nothing but the darkness of the black fire. Then we were on the other side, in the last chamber.

However Uncle Severus wasn't in there….

It wasn't even Voldemort.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter thirteen: The two-faced man, and a man without a nose.

It was Quirrell.

"You?" I asked.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter. I'm surprised to see you here, Malfoy. Wasn't your father one of the old followers of Lord Voldemort?"

He smirked when he saw that he hit a nerve.

"But- I thought- Snape-"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and he wasn't stuttering at all. "Yes, he does seem like the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him around. Next to him, who would expect p-p-poor st-stuttering p-professor Quirrell?"

I immediately felt guilty, I suspected my Godfather was behind this, and I never stood up for him.

"But Snape tried to kill me!"

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds andI'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you."

There was a little bit of silence before he spoke again.

"You two are too nosy to live. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the stone."

"So you let the troll in." I deducted.

**"**Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls. Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off - and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly. Now, wait quietly Malfoy, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

I looked around the room to see if there was any escape that we could use if we needed it. However it was in vain there was only one exit, and it was blocked by the black fire.

Quirrell was standing in by the mirror and observing it.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he's in London... I'll be far away by the time he gets back..."

Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it.

"I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master... but where is it?"

He stopped to think before he spoke again.

"I don't understand... is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"

A voice caught them off guard, it seemed to come from Quirrell, but he did not speak.

"Use the boy and girl." It demanded.

Quirrell rounded in on us, "Come here! Now!"

We walked forward.

"Come here and tell me what you see." Quirrell demanded.

Harry walked up to it first.

I don't know what he saw but he gasped, so it must be something to do with the stone.

"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?"

"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he said. "I - I've won the house cup for Gryffindor."

Quirrell cursed again.

"Get out of the way," he said.

Quirrell roughly grabbed my arm and pushed me in front of the mirror.

"What do you see, Malfoy?" Quirrell hissed.

"You could have asked nicely." I murmured before looking into the mirror.

I looked to see Harry in the mirror. He had pulled the stone out of his pocket and winked at me before putting it back in. So somehow the mirror gave the stone to Harry**. **

"What do you see, Malfoy?" Quirrell yelled again, losing his patience.

"What makes you think that I will tell you?" I said. "You may have been a sell out to Voldemort. I however am not."

"How dare you say his name?" Quirrell yelled in anger. "You filthy Blood-traitor."

He said a spell that I was familiar with. It was one father had used on me before. (an: it's not the cruciatus curse, but it's similar, but weaker than Crucio)

I began to feel like someone was punching me all over. Large cuts on my body began to show up, felling like someone was stabbing me, and the cuts were bleeding. I was rolling around on the floor in pain. My pained screams filling the room.

"Stop it!" Harry yelled frantically. "Please! Stop hurting her!"

"What did you see?" Quirrell repeated once he lifted the dark spell again.

I lifted my face at him. My hair blocking my eyes. "Go to hell." I said giving him a signature Malfoy smirk.

Quirrell was about to lift his wand again to attack me, and I closed my eyes ready to welcome the pain, only a voice stopped him.

"The boy lies…"

"Potter!" Quirrell turned away from me, and rounded on him, "Tell me the truth what did you see?"

I tried to push myself off the floor, but my body was in too much pain. My strength was gone.

The high voice spoke again.

"Let me speak to the children... face-to-face..."

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I have strength enough... for this..."

I watched as Quirrell began to unwrap his turban. When the turban fell, Quirrell turned so his back was facing us. Whatever I was expecting, this certainly wasn't it.

There was a face where the back of Quirrell's head should be. The face was a chalky whitish-green color with glaring red eyes, with slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"Harry Potter..." it whispered.

I gulped this was the creature I had seen in my nightmare.

"See what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor ... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... And once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

"Why would you tell us your plan?" I asked, shocked that he was stupid enough to tell us.

"Because I am opening up a deal." The face said. "Join me and you will also be granted immortality, greatness, and power."

"We will never join you." Harry spat.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the face. "Better save your life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents, Potter ... They died begging me for mercy..."

"LIAR!" Harry shouted.

Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.

"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, your parents were brave... I killed your father first, Potter; and he put up a courageous fight...but your mother needn't have died... She was trying to protect you...Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"No she would only have died in vain if I had joined you!" Harry yelled, he ran away trying to find an exit.

"SEIZE HIM!" Voldemort screamed.

I tried to get up again, but it was still in vain. I watched, miserable as I realized I could not help Harry. Quirrell's hand closed on his wrist. At once Quirrell let go. Both Harry and Quirrell/Voldemort of seemed to be in horrible pain.

I looked to see that Quirrell's fingers that had grabbed Harry were blistering before his eyes.

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" Voldemort shrieked. Quirrell grabbed Harry's neck, however Quirrell screamed again.

"Master, I cannot hold him- my hands- my hands!" Quirrell bellowed.

Harry, who realized Quirrell couldn't touch him, ran up to Quirrell and put his hands on his face.

"AAAARGH!"

Harry caught him by the arm and hung on to Quirrell as tightly as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw harry off, but he wouldn't budge.

Harry let go after Quirrell's skin had disintegrated into a pile of ash. Harry passed out soon after. I tried to get myself up, so I could help us get out of the chamber. However I still couldn't move. Black spots blurred my vision, and a passed out, in a small pool of her own blood. The last thought I had in my mind before I blanked out, was that: The stone is safe.

I blinked, and opened my eyes. Harry smiling face, along with Ron's and Hermione's was staring at me.

"It's a shame. The first sight I see when I woke up was your ugly face." I joked to Harry.

"Well you don't look so hot right now either." Harry said back.

He was right I had bruises all around my body. However I didn't feel the pain from them. Madam Pomfrey must have given me a potion for it.

"So what happened to the stone?" I asked

"Dumbledore said that Flamel intends on destroying it." Harry explained.

"Wouldn't he die?" I asked.

"Well I'll quote what Dumbledore said to me." Harry said.

"It is really like going to bed after a very, very long day." Harry said in a bad imitation of Dumbledore's voice, "After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

I chuckled but then frowned, something came back to my mind.

"Voldemort's gone now right? I mean there aren't any other ways to come back to life right?" I said trying to convince myself. Ron flinched when I said Voldemort.

"No Dumbledore said that there are still ways that he can come back to life. " Harry frowned.

I realized that was making us all feel down.

"Hey, so who wants to eat some candy?" I asked pointing to the enormous pile of candy near my bed side. There was also a toilet seat near my bed, which confused me.

Harry laughed when he saw my look, "It's from Fred and George, they thought it would amuse you."

"They stole a toilet seat?" I chuckled.

"It's Fred and George they probably stole the whole toilet for all we know." Ron added.

We all sat by my bed and had a contest with the Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans. The person who ate the most of the disgusting flavor beans, without throwing up, won. It ended up being a draw, as Madam Pomfrey shooed, Ron and Hermione out of the room after the mess we made.

We were sitting down at the Gryffindor table. The decorations around the room, showed that the Slytherins were in deed the winner of the House cup. All the kids in the room were trying to take a look at Ron, Hermione, Harry, and I. So the school must have known what we did and what happened to Quirrell.

Dumbledore began to make a speech. "Another year gone! And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts...Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and sixty-two points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and seventy-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, five hundred and seventy- two."

A storm of cheers came from the Slytherin table. Draco was banging his goblet on the table sending me his usual smirk. I knew that he wasn't mad at me anymore. Though it didn't make up the fact that we had lost.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded a little.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes...

"First to Mr. Ronald Weasley." Ron went a little red in the face. "For the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points.

Fred and George patted Ron on the back. Percy could be hears telling the other prefects "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"

At last there was silence again.

"Second - to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Hermione buried her face in her arms; I guess she didn't like or was used to the attention she was getting.

"To Miss Athena Malfoy." Dumbledore began.

I was drinking some of my pumpkin juice, and when I heard that I had spit it out. To my happiness it landed on Harry. He wiped his face with a napkin and swore vengeance on me.

"For her outstanding loyalty, and bravery during a crisis, I award Gryffindor Fifty points."

"Fourth - to Mr. Harry Potter..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

Sirius had lifted his cup as a toast when he heard Harry's name being called.

The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had five hundred and seventy-two points - exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup - if only Dumbledore had given Harryjust one more point.

Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

I rubbed Neville's shoulders and patted him on the back. Neville was bombarded with a bunch of Gryffindors hugging him. The Gryffindor table, and even some Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students were cheering.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, "we need a little change of decoration."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place.

Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile.

Sirius and McGonagall hit Goblets together, their house had won.

It was the best day of the whole year. No more worrying about the stone, or if my Uncle was a crazy lunatic who was trying to bring back an even crazier guy who wants to kill everyone... It was just relaxing with friends and eating really good food.

I had almost forgotten that we were going to be handed exam , I did pretty well. I got an outstanding in Potions, Exceeds expectations in everything else, except for Transfiguration which I got an Acceptable in. Hermione of course had the best grades of the first years. Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one. We had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said, you couldn't have everything in life. Harry and Ron did pretty well as well, only they had a few more Acceptable's than I did, but they didn't get anything lower than that.

The next thing I knew we were on the train ready to go back home. Harry, Ron and I were in the same compartment we were in at the beginning of the year. I remember because I had carved my initials into the wood of the door. This time Hermione joined us, and was welcomed. It was strange what could happen in such little time. We were given notes that warned us not to use magic outside of school, since we are under aged. We sat down in the compartment.

"Hey Ron you want to play chess?" I asked.

"No thanks, I think I've had enough Wizards chess for a lifetime." Ron declined.

"Agreed." Harry and Hermione chanted.

"Harry what are you looking at?" I asked.

He was holding a leather book that was very thick.

"Oh Sirius gave this to me after the feast. It's some old family photos with me and my parents or when they were teenagers, and some with Remus and Sirius.

"Can I see?" I asked.

He nodded and we all sat in a circle just looking at Harry's old memories. Some of the pictures made us aww, some made us sad, while others made us laugh.

"Guys we should make a scrapbook of us too." Hermione said, "After all I did get that Wizarding camera from Diagon alley during Christmas."

"We can start now." I shrugged.

We got in a little group and posed for the picture. It was pretty funny, Harry had poked his tongue out while Ron wore his cloak as a mimic of Quirrell's turban. Hermione just smiled, and I gave Harry bunny ears while I smiled.

We took a few more. Harry and Ron together; Ron had Harry in a head lock. Me in Hermione smiling as we holding pinkies. Me and Harry, making faces at each other. Ron putting an arm around Hermione's shoulder as the picture moves you can see Hermione punching Ron in the stomach. Then all of us again, only we were all rolling on the floor while laughing.

We were having so much fun, that I didn't realize that we had arrived at Kings Cross station.

"You must come and stay this summer," said Ron, "all of you - I'll send you an owl."

"Ron as much as I would love to, I doubt my parents would ever let." I replied.

"Ron and I will kidnap you." Harry said half laughing half serious.

"Bye Harry." Lavander, Pavarti and Padma Patil said at the same time.

"Bye Man." Seamus and Dean said to Ron and Harry.

"Still famous," said Ron, grinning at him.

"There he is, Mom, there he is, look!" It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron.

"Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see him!"

"Aww looks like someone has an itty bitty crush on you." I said to Harry.

"What you jealous?" Harry smirked.

"As if." I humped.

Harry smirked.

"Please I wouldn't like a guy whose ego is bigger than his whole body." I scoffed.

"Say what you want, but it's obvious you're jealous." Harry teased.

"I'm not jealous!" I yelled.

Harry jumped before he lifted his hands in surrender.

"Okay you're not jealous just don't kill me."

Mrs. Weasley and Ginny walked up to us.

Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them.

"Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Harry. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

"Yes they really were quite lovely." I added.

"Oh, it was nothing, dears."

Hermione hugged all of us.

"I have to go my parents need to be somewhere." She said. "I'll get the pictures in a scrapbook, we can take pictures throughout the years. It can be our Hogwarts book."

Ron and his family had to leave too.

Soon it was just me and Harry.

"Athena Malfoy! Come here this instant." I heard my dad yell.

I groaned.

"Harry I have to go." I said reluctantly.

"Okay." Harry said to me, "But remember the offer still stands."

"I'll keep it in mind." I smiled before giving him a tight hug.

"Hey thanks." I whispered to him.

"For what?" He asked confused.

"For everything."

I kissed him on the cheek before I had walked to my very angry father.

What I didn't see was a blushing Harry and a smirking Sirius and Shaggy (Yes I'm calling Remus that again).

"What the hell were you thinking…?" My dad ranted on and on, but I didn't listen.

I knew no matter what I said to him would make him angrier.

"And I thought I told you to stop talking to those Blood-traitors and that Mudblood."

"Look no matter what you do or say it's not going to work. I am going to be their friend until they want me to leave them alone. The one thing you taught me dad was loyalty." I argued.

"When we get home you are grounded the whole summer." Father said, his face turning red, "No going out of the house. No going to friend's house. And especially no letters from those misfits you call friends."

Father brought me to where Draco was standing next to mom. Mother and Father had apparated us home, or should I say the manner.

I was leaving my home, but rest assured I would be back. I only had to survive my parents for three months.


End file.
